Categories: Federal
07.11.2013
Network to lead meetings with NY Congress members in conjunction with NAEH's conference this month
The U.S. House and Senate have passed their respective appropriations bills for the federal Transportation Housing and Urban Development (THUD) subcommittee.
The Senate's bill is by far the stronger of the two. The Senate allocated $10 billion more to the THUD budget, including $2.26 billion for McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Grants. This amount represents a $228 million increase over last year's budget. The House, Senate and Executive budgets all provide increases to this vital program, a testament to its broad, bi-partisan support.
The Senate also funds the HOME program at $1 billion -- more than either the House or Executive budgets but far short of the 2010 funding level of $1.8 billion, before Congress cut the program by 40%. HOME has been a vital capital funding source for supportive housing. The Senate also proposes higher funding levels for HOPWA, Tenant-Based Section 8 and Project-Based Section 8. The House and Senate propose equal appropriations for Section 811 for persons with disabilities, Section 202 for the elderly and VA Supportive Housing (VASH).
These bills must now pass their respective houses, after which they'll be conferenced to determine the final budget levels for each program. As in previous years, the Network will lead a federal advocacy day in Washington, D.C. in conjunction with the National Alliance to End Homelessness' annual conference. We hope you'll join us on July 24 for our day of meetings with members of Congress and their staff. Please email Steve Piasecki if you'd like to get involved.
Even if you can't make it to D.C., we hope you'll contact your elected officials in the weeks ahead. See here for a list of phone numbers for all of New York's U.S. representatives. To find your representative, simply type your zip code here. We thank you for joining us on this effort!