The Affordable
Housing Bulletin
March 13, 2006
In Delaware
* March 15
Meeting – Land Use and Affordable Housing
* DHC Day for Housing – Wednesday, March 22
* March 29 Council on Housing
Public Forum
Elsewhere
*
Testing Finds Race-Based Discrimination Against Evacuees
* Affordable Housing Fund Update
* Expanding HUD’s
Definition of Homelessness
* DC Wins Living Wage!
* County
Population and Poverty Estimates Available
* 2006 SuperNofa is Out
* Tax Credit Database Updated
Land Use,
Affordable Housing, and Livable Delaware
The League
of Women Voters of Greater Dover will hold a potluck luncheon meeting on
March 15 from noon to 2:00 PM at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Old North
Road, Camden. The topic will be land use and affordable housing in the
context of Livable Delaware, the state’s program to control sprawl through
controlled-growth. Speakers will be:
Dave Keifer,
Chair,
Delaware Chapter of the Sierra Club
and
Gina Miserendino, Grassroots Policy Specialist, Delaware
Housing Coalition
Please bring a dish
to share, if you wish; beverages and pizza will be provided. A $2 donation
will be appreciated in lieu of food.
Day for Housing
Please join us for the Second Annual DHC Day for Housing, Wednesday, March
22. Events include:
- 9:00 AM - Build a ‘House” on Legislative Mall
- 10:30 AM - Kickoff at Public Archives Building
- Noon - Rally and Lunch on the Mall
- 12:30 PM - Visits to Legislative Hall Begin
Come help support initiatives that address –
- Affordable Housing ~ Increase the HDF to $12 million next
year
- Domestic Violence ~ A new law to protect tenant victims of
domestic violence
- Fair Housing ~ Eliminate housing discrimination based on
sexual orientation (HB 36)
- Fair Housing ~ Eliminate housing discrimination based on
source of income
- Manufactured Housing ~ Rent History Disclosure Act (SB 208)
- Manufactured Housing ~ Creation of a Manufactured Housing
Board (SB 209)
- Manufactured Housing ~ Resident Notification Law (SB 211)
- Manufactured Housing ~ Rent Justification Law (SB 212)
- Affordable, accessible and integrated housing for persons with
disabilities
- Remember to call ahead for appointments with your representative and
senator (although we will have “visiting cards” on all the issues that
you can leave in the offices of absent legislators)!
- Also, remember to bring your picture I.D. for entry to Legislative
Hall!
For more information, directions, and phone numbers, go to
www.housingforall.org/d4h06.htm
Day for Housing 2006 Co-Sponsors (to date):
- Appoquinimink Development, Inc.
- ARC of Delaware
- Better Homes of Seaford
- Brandywine Counseling, Inc.
- Brookview Tenant Council
- Community Legal Aid Society
- Cornerstone West CDC
- DE Coalition Against Domestic Violence
- DE Community Reinvestment Action Council
- Delaware Manufactured Home Owners Association
- Delmarva Rural Ministries
- De Rural Housing Consortium
- DE State Wide Association of Tenants
- Diamond State CLT
- First State R. C. and D. Council, Inc.
- Freedom Center for Independent Living
- Homebuilders Association of DE
- Homeless Planning Council
- Housing Opportunities of Northern DE
- Inter Faith Mission of Sussex County
- League of Women Voters (DE)
- Leon N. Weiner and Associates
- Lutheran Office on Public Policy
- Milford Housing Development Corporation
- Millsboro Housing for Progress
- NAMI DE
- NCALL Research
- Neighborhood House
- Office of Community Services
- State Council for Persons with Disabilities
- Voces Sin Fronteras (Voices Without Borders)
- West End Neighborhood House
- West Rehoboth Community Land Trust
- YWCA
Council on
Housing Public Forum
Delaware's Council on Housing invites the public to an open forum to discuss
affordable housing in Delaware on Wednesday, March 29, 2006, from 2:00 p.m.
to 4:00 p.m., Delaware Technical and Community College, ETB Conference Room,
Dover, DE.For
directions, please go to:
http://www.dtcc.edu/terry/pages/directions.html
Citizens are
welcome to share ideas and offer suggestions to help the Council determine
how to best serve the people of Delaware. [Jerry Jones, Delaware State
Housing Authority,
jerry@dsha.state.de.us ]
Testing
Finds Race-Based Discrimination Against Evacuees
The National Fair Housing Alliance found discrimination against African
Americans in 65% of tests it conducted in late 2005 in Alabama, Georgia,
Florida, Tennessee, and Texas, where large numbers of Hurricane Katrina
evacuees have sought rental homes. NFHA has filed complaints with HUD
against five apartment complexes and plans more testing in 2006. Report on
Housing Discrimination Against Hurricane Katrina Survivors is at
http://www.nationalfairhousing.org. [HAC News, 3/8/06]
Affordable Housing Fund Update
S. 190,
the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005, which seeks to
impose tougher regulations on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, appears now to
have potential for movement in the Senate this year, after being seemingly
stuck in the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee.
Senator
Richard Shelby (R-AL) who serves as chair for the committee said he expected
the Senate GSE bill to move to the floor this year. He was quoted by
Reuters News Service on January 31 as saying, “We believe before the year is
out that we’ve got a good chance to pass a meaningful piece of legislation.”
Right now
the Senate’s GSE legislation does not include an Affordable Housing Fund,
and though the Affordable Housing Fund seems to have widespread support by
members of both parties in the Senate, issues such as portfolio limits will
need to be resolved before the Affordable Housing Fund is included.
Advocates are working tirelessly to ensure the Fund is included in the bill.
On
October 26, 2005, H.R. 1461, the House’s version of the GSE legislation,
passed the House. This version did have an amendment authorizing the
Affordable Housing Fund; however, the amendment also contained provisions
that discriminate against non-profits. It would have prevented non-profits
that engage in non-partisan voting activities, such as voter registration,
or are affiliated with an organization that engages in these activities,
from being eligible to receive the funds. For-profits were exempt from
these restrictions. Advocates and Democrats put up a valiant fight to have
these provisions stricken, but in the end the bill passed with the
undemocratic provisions included.
In
addition to working to have the Fund added to the Senate’s bill, advocates
are also trying to ensure that the undemocratic provisions do not also
become a part of the legislation.
For more
information please go to the National Housing Trust Fund Campaign website
at:
http://www.nhtf.org/. [By Kirsten Peterson, March 2006 SAFETY NETWORK,
National Coalition for the Homeless]
Expanding HUD's
Definition of Homelessness
In June 2005, the U.S. Conference of Mayors passed a resolution expressing
concern about homeless families and youth and urging the United States
Interagency Council on Homelessness (ICH) to adopt a common definition of
homelessness.
Since then, views
about the issue of homeless definitions have evolved through discussions
among many housing and homeless organizations across the country.*
The prevailing view that has emerged is that the real problem with homeless
definitions is not the lack of a common definition, but more specifically
the ways in which the current HUD definition of homelessness excludes many
homeless people - particularly families, children, and youth.
Anchorage, AK
Mayor Mark Begich, sponsor of the original resolution, will introduce a new
resolution at the next meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, June 2-6,
in Las Vegas. The new resolution
will specifically call for HUD to expand its definition of homelessness to
include people who are sharing the housing of others due to loss of housing,
economic hardship, or a similar reason, and people living in motels.
The new resolution
is an important item for advocacy for several reasons. If passed, it would
put a major constituency - U.S. Conference of Mayors - on record as
supporting a homelessness policy that better responds to the needs of
families, children, and youth, and that gives greater flexibility to
communities to address locally assessed needs. Further, it would help raise
the visibility of homeless definitions in the current legislative debate on
the reauthorization of the HUD McKinney-Vento Act programs, helping pave the
way for legislative changes.
Please find the following resources linked below:
1) The new
resolution
http://www.npach.org/homeless_resolution2006.pdf
2) An abstract from a position paper released last year by five national
organizations;
http://www.npach.org/definition_paper_abstract.pdf
3) A letter from national, state, and local organizations to HUD Secretary
Alphonso Jackson;
http://www.npach.org/nlchp_federal_definition.pdf
ACTION NEEDED:
Please contact your Mayor and urge him or her to join Mayor Begich in
sponsoring the resolution. The deadline for sign-ons is WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19, 2006.
[Brad Paul,
National Policy and Advocacy Council on Homelessness,
bpaul@npach.org]
DC Wins Living Wage!
After months of
advocacy and organizing, members of the Living Wage Coalition were finally
able to celebrate victory with the near-unanimous passage of the “Way to
Work” bill this afternoon in the DC Council. "At long last, the DC Council
is stepping up to help assure living wages for working families,” said Terry
Lynch, Chair of the DC Workers Rights Board and Executive Director of the
Downtown Cluster of Congregations. The historic legislation guarantees
$11.75 an hour for all direct and sub-contracted DC government workers, as
well as employees of businesses that receive Tax Increment Financing from
the District. The final vote came after hours of debate over the exact terms
of the Living Wage law. Though members of the Living Wage coalition
expressed disappointment that the Living Wage will not apply to businesses
receiving tax abatements or Industrial Revenue Bonds, they took pride in
winning improvements to the bill through their efforts over the past year,
including a wage that will be adjusted annually for inflation and coverage
for part-time workers. Nearly 100 Living Wage supporters gathered this
morning for a press conference to celebrate the impending passage of the Way
to Work bill. Union and community members were joined by Council members
Adrian Fenty and Vincent Orange, who were instrumental in moving the
legislation forward. Other speakers included Marcel Reid, president of DC
ACORN, Rabbi Jason Kimelman-Bloch of Jews United for Justice, and Rev.
Raymond Bell of the DC Workers’ Rights Board. [Christine Gibson,
christine@worldhungeryear.org
]
County
Population and Poverty Estimates Available
The Census
Bureau’s Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates program provides estimates
for states, counties, and school districts for each year from 1995 to 2003.
Visit
http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/saipe/index.html.
[HAC News, 3/8/06]
2006 SuperNofa Is Out – Here Are the
Links
TA site:
http://www.hud.gov/offices/adm/grants/nofa06/grpcdta.cfm
Homeless site:
http://www.hud.gov/offices/adm/grants/nofa06/grpcoc.cfm
Tax Credit Database Updated
The Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) database, created by HUD and
available to the public since 1994, has been updated and now contains
information on more than 24,500 projects and nearly 1,257,000 housing units
placed in service between 1987 and 2003. The LIHTC is one of the most
important resources for creating affordable housing in the United States
today. The revised national database provides a comprehensive project-level
look at LIHTC housing production.
Created by the Tax Reform Act of 1986, the LIHTC program gives states the
equivalent of nearly $5 billion in annual budget authority to issue tax
credits for the acquisition, rehabilitation, or new construction of rental
housing targeted to lower-income households. Although some data about the
program have been made available through various sources, HUD's database is
the only complete national source of information on the size, unit mix, and
location of individual projects. Through
continuing support of the national LIHTC database, HUD hopes to enable
researchers to learn more about the effects of the tax credit program.
The database includes project addresses, number of units and low-income
units, number of bedrooms, year the credit was allocated, year the project
was placed in service, whether the project was new construction or rehab,
type of credit provided, and other sources of project financing. The
database has been geocoded, enabling researchers to look at the geographical
distribution and neighborhood characteristics of tax credit projects. It may
also help show how incentives to locate projects in low-income areas and
other underserved markets are working.
New enhancements in this database update include: data on the interaction of
the LIHTC with other HUD project-based subsidy programs, including FHA
mortgage insurance, HOME and CDBG funds, and HOPE VI; data on project
targeting to special needs populations; and limited information on
whether projects initially funded by the LIHTC are still being monitored for
compliance with LIHTC program guidelines. The new data on HUD subsidies and
targeting are generally available only for projects placed in service in
2003, with some limited coverage of earlier years.
Data are available through the LIHTC Database Access website at
http://lihtc.huduser.org/. In addition to downloading the entire
database, users may extract more limited sets of data by selecting only the
variables of interest to them, and by filtering for variable values or
restricting the geographic extent of their query.
A companion report analyzing the latest data is available at
http://www.huduser.org/datasets/lihtc/report9503.pdf.
[HUD USER]