As of this afternoon, the House and Senate have each passed different versions of the proposed economic stimulus package (H.R. 1 and S. 1, respectively). We are pleased that both bills contain an allocation of $1.5 billion for homelessness prevention, to be spent over the next two years through HUD's Emergency Shelter Grant (ESG) program, on a broad range of eligible activities. We are also pleased that both bills contain additional funding for the Education of Homeless Children & Youth (EHCY) program in the U.S, Department of Education (Ed) - $70 million in the Senate and $66 million in the House.
Unfortunately, neither bill provides sufficient resources for affordable housing subsidies or production. Congress chose not to include any funding for new Section 8 vouchers, or to capitalize the National Housing Trust Fund - despite requests by NPACH and a broad range of organizations for $4 billion to create 400,000 new vouchers and $10 billion to seed the Trust Fund. Even more egregiously, as the Senate rejected these critical requests, the body approved a new tax credit for homebuyers that will cost over $18 billion dollars.
With regard to other housing and human services programs, the House bill is far preferable to the Senate legislation. The House bill offers more dollars for Neighborhood Stabilization (rehabilitation of foreclosed properties), Medicaid, SNAP (food stamp) benefits, and other programs important to low income Americans. It also includes protections for tenants in foreclosed properties. And the House's tax provisions are more favorable to the poor.
Negotiations over the final legislation will take place in a very compressed time frame - this week. We urge advocates to contact their House Members and Senators and ask them to support the House stimulus provisions on affordable housing, community development, and key human needs programs. Calls are critical, as the House will be under pressure to make concessions to the Senate, in order to strike a deal and pass the bill quickly.
***Note - if you are calling about Education of Homeless Children and Youth, this is the one case where you will want to tell Congressional staff to defer to the Senate bill as they work to reconcile the House and Senate bills.***
Below are materials that can help you:
Contact information for Congress:
Letter to Congress from 547 national, state, and local groups urging additional affordable housing funding in the stimulus:
Analysis of housing provisions in House and Senate bills, as compared to funding requests:
Read the document - thanks to the National Housing Conference.
New York Times editorial supporting stimulus funding for the National Housing Trust Fund: