PRESS RELEASE: President Bush’s FY09 HUD Budget Proposal Hurts More Than It Helps
February 4, 2008
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 4, 2008
Contact: Sheila Crowley 202-662-1530 x225 sheila@nlihc.org
President Bush’s FY09 HUD Budget Proposal Hurts More Than It Helps
‘We are disappointed, but not surprised, by the budget for low income housing programs that President George W. Bush has sent to Congress today,” said Sheila Crowley, President of the National Low Income Housing Coalition. “It is a typical Bush budget, one that offers some small steps forward, while taking many steps back.”
The President cites “turbulence” in the U.S. housing market as a core issue to be addressed in the FY09 federal budget; nonetheless, he weakens programs that assist the lowest income people find and keep affordable housing. Indeed, given that this turbulence is causing millions of people to lose their homes, it would seem to be the right time to increase support for key safety net housing programs. Cuts to federal housing programs upon which the lowest income people depend is really bad for them and really bad for the economy.
Specifically the President proposes to:
- Cut the number of housing vouchers that help very poor people pay their rent by 100,000.
- Cut the budget for housing for poor elderly people by 27%.
- Cut the budget for housing for people with disabilities by 32%.
- Cut the fund for repair and maintenance of public housing by 17% and eliminate funding to repair public housing that is damaged by natural disasters.
- Cut the lead hazard reduction funds by 20%.
- Cut the block grants to cities and states for housing and community development program by 18%, especially egregious at a time when state and local government are losing property tax revenue because of decline in home values.
- Cut low income energy assistance by 20%.
- Flat fund homeless assistance grants.
- Flat fund housing for people with AIDS.
- Eliminate the HUD rural housing program.
At a time when the demand for low income housing assistance far outstrips the supply and when there are 2.8 million more poor families in the United States than there are homes for rent that they can afford, the FY09 low income housing budget is woefully lacking.
On the plus side, the President proposes to substantially increase funding for Section 8 project-based housing, which has been short funded for several years, although the increase is not enough to get the program back to where it should be. Also in the President’s budget is a 20% increase to the HOME program that provides housing funding to states and localities and funds for housing counseling for people facing mortgage foreclosure.
NLIHC congratulates the President for requesting $39 million for new vouchers to assist poor elderly and disabled people who remain displaced by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and whose housing assistance from FEMA will end in March 2009.
“The FY09 HUD budget as proposed by President Bush is not based on the real needs of real people,” Crowley said. “Rather it is based on a strategy to cut as much as possible from domestic discretionary program before he leaves office.”
NLIHC is the only national organization whose sole mission is to end the affordable housing crisis in America. NLIHC educates, organizes and advocates ensuring decent, affordable housing within healthy neighborhoods for everyone.
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National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC)
727 15th Street NW, 6th Floor, Washington, D.C. 20005
202/662-1530; Fax 202/393-1973; info@nlihc.org; www.nlihc.org
©2007 National Low Income Housing Coalition.
