|
Letter to Support the Gulf Coast
National Low Income Housing Coalition
(05/16/2006)
Chairman Jerry Lewis
House Appropriations Committee
H-218 U.S. Capitol
Washington D.C. 20510 Ranking Member David Obey
House Appropriations Committee
1016 Longworth House Office Building
US House of Representatives
Washington D.C. 20510 Chairman Joe Knollenberg
Transportation, Treasury, HUD, The Judiciary and District of Columbia Subcommittee
2358 Rayburn House Office Building
US House of Representatives
Washington D.C. 20510 Ranking Member John Olver
Transportation, Treasury, HUD, The Judiciary and District of Columbia Subcommittee
1016 Longworth House Office Building
US House of Representatives
Washington D.C. 20510 May 16, 2006 Dear Chairman Lewis, Ranking Member Obey, Chairman Knollenberg, and Ranking Member Olver: The undersigned national and Gulf area organizations thank you for your dedication to rebuilding in the wake of last year's hurricanes. Thanks to your support, the 2006 Emergency Supplemental Appropriations bill will provide additional resources that are vital components of the states' rebuilding plans. As conference negotiations on the final bill begin we would like to express our strong support for several aspects of the Senate bill, which are critical to ensuring that the needs of elderly, disabled and other extremely low income renters in the Gulf coast are met. We request that these components remain in any compromise that emerges from conference committee negotiations.
Tenant Based Rental Assistance
This cost-neutral provision simply sets aside $100 million of the $202 million requested by the President for the purpose of funding project-based rental assistance. This set-aside would help to rebuild and rehabilitate affordable rental housing for approximately 13,500 low-income families. Additional language makes the funding easier to use by linking it to the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit and specifies that 4,500 of the funded units be permanent supportive housing. Supportive housing is a highly cost-effective investment, preventing homelessness for vulnerable people and thereby sharply reducing hospitalizations and the need for costly emergency services. This provision is urgently needed. Project-based rental assistance offers the most cost-effective means available to ensure that some rebuilt housing in mixed-income communities will be made available to low-wage workers and other households in need of affordable rental assistance. We therefore urge you to accept both the $100 million set-aside and the amended language of the Senate project-based rental assistance provision. Rural Housing
We support the Senate request for $35.4 million for USDA rural housing programs. To date, there has been no appropriated aid for rural renters, although USDA has estimated that rental property repairs alone will cost $35 million. The funding in the Senate bill would begin to address this need. Housing Pilot Programs
The Senate bill includes important language authorizing FEMA to use the Disaster Relief Fund (DRF) to create housing pilot programs in the Gulf Coast in order to find more efficient and effective responses, for current and future disasters, to meet the temporary housing needs of displaced persons beyond rental assistance and trailers. FEMA's historical response to disasters has been to provide trailers to those in need of immediate housing assistance. The scope and scale of Hurricane Katrina's destruction, however, have made the trailer response rife with problems. Administrative and political problems, as well as limitations in the Stafford Act, have made many households unable to access and/or place needed trailers. Limited by their interpretation of the Stafford Act as being unable to use the DRF for anything other than temporary housing, and recognizing that trailers would not meet all of the housing needs created by the storm, FEMA instituted a transitional rental assistance program. This program, while helpful for some, is ineffective in areas that have suffered a substantial loss of rental housing due to the disasters, and has also been plagued by numerous problems preventing those most in need from obtaining or retaining assistance. At the same time, thousands of damaged apartments sit empty and unused in many areas of the Gulf. Senate language would provide FEMA the flexibility it needs to use DRF to explore alternatives and create pilot programs to test their effectiveness. One use of DRF could be to rehabilitate damaged rental housing stock in the Gulf, giving displaced residents a more cost efficient and safer housing alternative to trailers. Community Development Block Grants
We support the Senate request of $5.2 billion for CDBG funding, as well as Senate language ensuring that no state affected by 2005 hurricanes receives less than 3.5% of the appropriated funds. This negotiation between Senators from Louisiana, Florida and Texas would presumably allow Louisiana to receive the entire $4.2 billion of funds the state has requested, while ensuring that Texas, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida each receive at least $182 million to meet their states? hurricane recovery needs. Louisiana has proven, down to the dollar, its need for an additional $4.2 billion of CDBG funds, and other Gulf Coast states suffered major damage to their housing stock from Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and in the case of Florida, Hurricanes Wilma and Dennis. A $5.2 billion CDBG appropriation is necessary to ensure that the entire Gulf Coast can recover from the 2005 hurricane season. FEMA Utility Assistance
Soon after Katrina FEMA encouraged cities and states to create, under Section 403 (public assistance) of the Stafford Act, voucher programs to respond to the many evacuees in need of immediate housing solutions. Local and state governments entering into 403 leases agreed , and were permitted by FEMA, to pay utilities with funds to be reimbursed by FEMA. FEMA, however, incorrectly interprets Section 408 of the Stafford Act as prohibiting the use of temporary housing assistance money for utilities or security deposits. Now that the 403 program is ending and eligible persons are transitioning to 408, these tenants will not be permitted to use their 408 money for utilities -- which means they may not be able to afford their units. While both House and Senate bills authorize FEMA to pay for utility costs on behalf of some evacuees transitioning from 403 to 408 temporary housing assistance, the House bill includes language that implicitly endorses FEMA's problematic interpretation of the Stafford Act with respect to covering utility costs.
We ask that you support the Senate version of Section 2501, which authorizes FEMA to continue paying for utilities for households living in units originally leased under city emergency housing programs without endorsing FEMA's problematic interpretation of its authority under the Stafford Act. Thank you for considering these requests. Sincerely, ACORN
American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging
Bill Quigley, Loyola University New Orleans School of Law
Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law
Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities
Florida Housing Coalition
Florida Legal Services
Housing Assistance Council
Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
Magnolia Bar Association
Mississippi Workers' Center for Human Rights
National AIDS Housing Coalition
National Alliance to End Homelessness
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
National Low Income Housing Coalition
National Alliance on Mental Illness
National Association of Katrina Evacuees
National Fair Housing Alliance
National Housing Conference
National Housing Law Project
National Housing Trust
National Leased Housing Association
Oxfam America
Partnership for Working Families
Technical Assistance Collaborative
Texas Low Income Housing Information Service
US Jesuit Conference
Volunteers of America
The Praxis Project c/o National Low Income Housing Coalition
727 15th St., NW, 6th Floor
Washington, DC 20005
202-662-1530
|
