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FY 04 Budget: Compassion Fatigue NAHRO calls on a commitment of resources to house the elderly, the disabled, the children, and the growing number of working poor Americans. The President's FY 04 budget continues this administration's trend of eliminating programs that transform blighted communities and neighborhoods throughout America. The budget includes one dismaying proposal after another. For example, it proposes to transfer administration of local rental assistance (the Section 8 voucher program) to states. With a few modifications, the program's current administrative structure has been successful. Currently, 94 to 97 percent of vouchers are utilized by our nation's most vulnerable in local communities. Only in Washington, D.C. is this considered a failure rate. HUD's own assessments of state-run voucher programs bear out the inability of states to adequately administer the program. The proposal to zero out funding for the HOPE VI revitalization program follows the administration's decision in FY 02 to end the public housing drug elimination grant program. HOPE VI is a proven catalyst for neighborhood revitalization and an engine for economic growth in many communities throughout the country. The progress made over the past decade in rebuilding America's cities and reducing crime rates will surely erode quickly, even as the administration calls for increased attention to homeland security. Two years ago the administration eliminated PHDEP arguing that it duplicated existing activities eligible under the Operating Subsidy. It is, at the very least, a contradiction that this year the administration continues its effort to fund a down payment assistance initiative that duplicates eligible activities under the HOME program. The $200 million proposed for this initiative is better utilized by allowing local communities to determine the best use of those funds. Furthermore, the proposed elimination of what the president calls "unfair double taxation" of stock dividends would undermine programs that help build affordable housing that is woefully scarce and in high demand. Incentives to participate in the low-income housing tax credit program, empowerment zones and the new market tax credit program would disappear under the president's proposed economic stimulus. These losses would come on top of the current 30 to 50 percent cuts to HUD's Operating Subsidy for all local housing agencies, along with dramatic cuts to the rental assistance program. Surely the administration does not intend to ignore the unplanned consequences of the proposed budget and to increase the number of homeless in America. Securing the homeland should include providing safe and decent housing and
shelter for our country's most at-risk population. It would seem this administration
has a case of compassion fatigue - not the compassionate conservatism they claim. |
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