CHAPA Action Alert: Call Your State Representative Today and Ask Them to Support Housing Budget Amendments - April 18, 2013

IMMEDIATE ACTION NEEDED

Call Your State Representative Today and Ask Them to Support Housing Budget Amendments

Find the contact information for your Representative at www.malegislature.gov or by calling (617) 722-2000.

The House released its budget proposal on April 10th. Debate on amendments is scheduled for next week. While most housing programs received similar funding to FY13, more funding is needed to reduce homelessness and housing instability and to increase housing options for low-income households, persons with disabilities, and seniors. Please call your Representative today and ask them to support the following amendments.  

1.      Increase funding for the Massachusetts Rental Voucher Program (MRVP). CHAPA and the Building Blocks Coalition are supportive of all     efforts to increase funding and to ensure that the administrative fee is restored. Governor Patrick and House Ways and Means (HWM) funded MRVP at $46.5 million. 

• Amendment 159, Representative Paul Donato’s amendment funding MRVP at $50 million, which will provide approximately 375 additional vouchers.
• Amendment 491, Representative Gloria Fox’s amendment funding MRVP at $60 million, which will provide approximately 1,400 additional vouchers.
• Amendment 597 and 802, Representative Thomas Golden’s and Representative Linda Dean Campbell’s amendments restoring the MRVP administrative fee to $32.50 per voucher per month. House Ways and Means set the administrative fee at $30 per voucher per month.

2.      Continue rental assistance for HomeBASE families for a third year as well as ensuring families can access cash assistance programs and maintain their homelessness preference for subsidized housing. The average monthly income of families receiving HomeBASE rental assistance is $795 and their monthly housing costs an average of $1,173. With rental assistance scheduled to end in FY'14, families are in danger of once again becoming homeless.

• Amendment 649, Representatives Byron Rushing and Kevin Honan’s amendment allowing families to continue their HomeBASE rental assistance for a third year; ensuring HomeBASE families are eligible for shelter, HomeBASE household assistance, and RAFT when their rental assistance ends in order to help them transition to stable housing; and allowing HomeBASE families to maintain their homelessness preference for subsidized housing.

3.      Increase funding for public housing. 

• Amendment 101, Representative Peter Kocot’s amendment funding public housing at $66.4 million. House Ways and Means funded public housing at $62.4 million, which is $2 million less than the Governor’s proposal.

In addition, we are supporting:

• Amendment 646, Representative Tim Toomey’s amendment increasing funding for the Alternative Housing Voucher Program (AHVP) to $4.5 million, which would provide more than 100 new vouchers for disabled individuals. Both the Governor and HWM fund AHVP at $3,450,000.
• Amendment 679, Representative Paul Mark’s amendment increasing funding for the Housing Consumer Education Centers (HCECs) to $1.75 million. Both the Governor and HWM funded the HCECs at $1,395,996. 
• Amendment 618, Representative Michael Brady’s amendment increasing funding for the Tenancy Preservation Program (TPP) to $700,000, which is a $350,000 increase over FY'13. In consultation with the Housing Court, TPP works with property owners and tenants with disabilities facing eviction to determine whether the disability can be reasonably accommodated and the tenancy preserved.
• Amendment 571, Representative Antonio Cabral’s amendment extending the brownfields tax credit through 2018. The brownfields tax credit is an important tool used by developers to remediate contaminated property in economically distressed areas. The tax credit is set to expire on August 5th, 2013.

For more information, please contact

Rachel Heller, CHAPA Director of Public Policy, Rheller@chapa.org