FOR IMMEDIATE ACTION
Action Alert!
President's Budget Slashes Billions of Dollars from Programs for Poor Persons
Dear Friends,
President Bush this week released his Budget Request for the Fiscal Year 2009. The budget proposes significant cuts for many of the larger social safety net programs. Homeless programs fared slightly better, but proposed increases to homeless programs would be offset by larger cuts to other homeless or social safety net programs.
As in past years, the Administration proposed an increase for the McKinney-Vento programs administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Under the President's proposed budget, HUD McKinney-Vento programs would get approximately $49 million in increased funding, approximately a 3% increase. At the same time, however, the President proposed cutting the McKinney-Vento Emergency Food and Shelter (EFS) program by approximately $53 million, a cut of 35% over prior year's levels. The EFS program, administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), provides funding for eviction prevention, emergency shelter and services, and food assistance.
In addition to the EFS program, the President also proposed cutting funding for a number of programs that provide housing or services that help to prevent homelessness. The Section 202 program for elderly persons would lose approximately $196 million and housing for persons with disabilities would be cut by $78 million under the proposed FY09 budget. Community Development Block Grants would be cut by $659 million. The President also proposed to fund Housing Choice Vouchers at a level that would result in 100,000 fewer vouchers.
Other social safety net programs would also suffer. The Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program would be cut by $570 million, a 22% cut from FY08 levels. Households that have their utilities cut off are more likely than other households to end up homeless.The Runaway and Homeless Youth Program were flat-funded, without any increase to account for inflation.
Domestic violence programs would be particularly hard hit. The President proposed to reduce funding for programs under the Violence Against Women Act by $120 million. The President also would eliminate funding for the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) Fund - a $2 billion cut. VOCA provides counseling, court advocacy, child trauma evaluation, and other services for victims of domestic violence.
In one of the few bright spots for homeless programs, the President proposed a $7 million increase for the McKinney-Vento PATH program that provides outreach and case management for homeless persons with mental illness. The PATH program, which was funded at $53 million in FY08, has not received a funding increase in several years and was even cut slightly in FY08. NLCHP has been leading efforts to secure more funding for the program and will press Congress for $75 million for the PATH program.
But Note from Bernie VOH, Inc president "Paragraph 6 - PATH (Homeless Outreach Case Management) is getting an increase "nationwide", however, Maryland is taking a $21,000 cut."
Another area of small success was for housing for homeless veterans. The President proposed $75 million for the HUD-Veterans Administration Supportive Housing program, which would provide housing vouchers for approximately 8000-10,000 homeless veterans. That funding level would match the amount advocates obtained last year in the FY08 final appropriations bill.
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Action Requested:
Look up your Congresspersons on the House of Representatives and Senate websites.
Call or e-mail your Representative
and Senators
and say:
* "Please support funding for homeless assistance programs. Specifically:
*Oppose proposed cuts to the McKinney-Vento Emergency Food and Shelter Program
*Oppose cuts to the Violence Against Women Act programs and Victims of Crime Act Fund
*Oppose cuts to public housing, Housing Choice Vouchers, and the Section 202 and Section 811 programs
*Request $75 million for the McKinney-Vento PATH program
*Support the request for $75 million for the HUD-VASH program
Also see Bernie's note on Maryland cut on homeless outreach funding
If you have time, explain why it is important to you and your community that funding be increased.
Then, thank them for helping to ensure that homeless individuals and families receive the housing and services they need to get out of homelessness.
Never called your Member of Congress before? Don't worry, it's easy!
When you call the office, your call will be answered by a receptionist. Tell him or her that you want to leave a message for the Representative or Senator. The receptionist will take down your message.
Please send copies of any correspondence to Laurel Weir here at NLCHP.
For more information, contact Laurel Weir or see
www.nlchp.org.
The National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty was established in June 1989 by attorney Maria Foscarinis. She was instrumental in winning passage of the Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act, the first major federal legislation addressing homelessness.
NLCHP is the only national legal advocacy organization solely dedicated to ending and preventing homelessness. Through impact litigation, policy advocacy, and public education the organization addresses the root causes of homelessness at the local, state, and national levels.
CREATE A MORE OPEN BUDGET PROCESS IN MARYLAND
Urge Legislators to Support House Bill 109
House Bill 109 requires the state budget department to include in the documents for the upcoming fiscal year a specific listing of changes that reduce funding or the level of services from the current year, and a listing of any changes being made in the current year that reduce services or funding below levels authorized in the budget as enacted for the current year.
House Bill 109 will be heard by the House Appropriations Committee (see link below)
on Tuesday, Jan. 29 at 1pm.
Please contact members of the committee and urge passage of the legislation. Phone calls or other direct personal communications to committee members are most effective. You can also use our web-based system to send an email to your local representative - use "Take Action" to use the system.
Each year the state budget is the most significant action of the General Assembly. For the public, advocates and the legislature, the proposal becomes ‘available' a week after the session begins, with the introduction of the Budget Bill and the release of budget books, which in a few days are now available online. But as a practical matter there is very little opportunity for public scrutiny or input in the budget process, particularly when funding or services are being limited or cut back.
Budget hearings begin almost immediately after the budget is introduced, allowing little or no chance for the public or advocates to raise issues about services or programs that were under-funded (or even eliminated) in the budget proposal, in large part because it may not even be possible to identify where this is happening within that time frame. In fact the legislature's own staff, in the Department of Legislative Services, have indicated that this information may be difficult fore them to determine.
Even a thorough review of current budget documents may not find changes being made in the current year (such as appropriated funds being held back), or the fact that proposed ‘level funding' for a program will actually require a reduction in service because of increasing costs.
Please act now!
This bill could be an important step in educating both the public and the media about the "trade-offs" made each year in the budget that affect services to people and communities in need.
Go to the the committee's link below will take you to a committee roster - each member's link will give you their background and contact information.
http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/mdmanual/06hse/html/com/01app.html
Please watch this
Subject: 60 MINUTES'
Dumped on Skid Row" (5/20/07)Hi. I wanted to let you know about a story that 60 MINUTES will be
running this Sunday that I thought you might be interested in. It’s a
piece on the practice of some hospitals of dropping discharged homeless
patients on Skid Row – whether or not they’re healthy enough to fend for
themselves. It’s an upsetting situation, and we are trying to get word
out to people with a particular interest in this issue. So to that end,
it would be great if you could send out an email to your listserve
and/or post something on your website. The piece will be broadcast on
CBS stations on at 7:00 ET/PT on Sunday, May 20. For more information,
check out our website,
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/1998/07/08/60minutes/main13502.shtml ,
which you're welcome to link to from your own site.
Below, you’ll find a short write-up about the piece. If you have any
further questions, please contact me at sandersr@cbsnews.com
or 212-975-7598.
Thank you for your help.
Best,
Robin Sanders
CBS News 60 Minutes
phone: 212-975-7598
email:
sandersr@cbsnews.com
“HOSPITAL DUMPING”
Are some Los Angeles hospitals simply throwing homeless patients ou
on the street after discharging them, literally dumping them on Skid
Row --even if they come from other places in Los Angeles and are in no
condition to fend for themselves? While there have been allegations of
hospital dumping for years, people only started paying attention
recently, after several shelters installed special cameras on the street
to try to capture the practice. Anderson Cooper’s investigation will air
this
Sunday, May 20, on 60 MINUTES
(7PM ET/PT on CBS).
Get ready for the
“Homeless Awareness Walk”
Please go to the Calendar page for details!