On May 13, the House Committee on Appropriations passed its FY16 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies (THUD) bill, H.R. 2577, by a party line vote. The full House will now consider this federal budget bill. It is critical that advocates contact their Representatives in Congress today.
The bill drastically underfunds critical housing programs and includes many harmful provisions, including:
- Directs ALL National Housing Trust Fund (NHTF) money into the HOME Program and forbids Congress from putting any other money into the NHTF.
- Cuts HOME to $767 million in FY16 from $900 million in FY15. HOME must be fully funded in addition to, not at the expense of, critically needed funding for the NHTF.
- Underfunds the public housing capital fund. The bill cuts the public housing capital fund by almost $200 million. At $1.681 billion for FY16, the capital fund is not sufficient to keep pace with even half of annual public housing capital needs.
- Funds McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Grants program at $2.185 billion. This amount would allow programs to operate at their current capacities, but it would not provide any new housing resources to allow communities to continue making progress towards ending homelessness.
TAKE ACTION
Contact your Representative ask him or her to oppose the bill in its entirety. The bill’s inadequate funding levels are the direct result of the sequester spending caps, which limits the total amount of federal spending next year. The caps must be replaced so that housing programs are sufficiently funded. As a share of the U.S. economy, the deficit is expected to be 2.5 percent in 2016, down from a high of 10 percent in 2009 following the Great Recession. Budget deficits are common; in the last half century, the U.S. ran a budget deficit in 44 out of 50 years. Budget deficits have averaged 3.1 percent of the U.S. economy since 1930.
Click here to contact your Representative.