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The Affordable Housing Bulletin
May 16, 2003

In this issue:

In Delaware
Council on Manufactured Housing to Meet

Elsewhere
Proposal to Block Grant Section 8 Voucher Program
2003 Advocates' Guide to Housing & CD Policy
Trapped by Poverty, Trapped by Abuse Research Conference

Council on Manufactured Housing to Meet
The Council on Manufactured Housing will convene on Wednesday, May 21, 2003, from 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM in Room 112 of the Tatnall Building, Dover.

In the wake of the speedy passage of House Bill No. 2, this body will be meeting to consider a full agenda of issues related to manufactured housing in Delaware.

Proposal to Block Grant Section 8 Voucher Program
On April 29, two similar bills (H.R. 1841 and S. 947) were introduced that would end the existing Housing Choice Voucher program (sometimes known as the “Section 8” voucher program) and replace it beginning in fiscal year 2005 with a block grant to the states, which would be called Housing Assistance for Needy Families (HANF). The Administration included such a proposal in the budget it unveiled in February, but until now details on how the proposal would work were unavailable.

A new analysis from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reexamines the block grant proposal based on the specific provisions of the recently-filed bills. It finds that the proposal to block grant the housing voucher program would radically alter an effective program and damage its capacity to help low-income families struggling to afford housing. A voucher block grant would likely lead to the immediate loss of tens of thousands of vouchers and cause funding to erode further with each passing year. As a result, states would experience pressure to cut number the families that receive vouchers, shift assistance to higher-income families, and raise the rents that poor families with
vouchers must pay. The new paper, by Barbara Sard and Will Fischer, is entitled Housing Voucher Block Grant Bills Would Jeopardize An Effective Program And Likely Lead To Cuts In Assistance For Low-Income Families and is available at:

http://www.cbpp.org/5-14-03hous.htm  85K
http://www.cbpp.org/5-14-03hous.pdf   83K, 17pp.
Other papers relevant to current policy proposals on the housing voucher program are gathered at http://www.cbpp.org/housingvoucher.htm  .

Those interested in a detailed analysis of each provision of the bill, and of how the bills differ from each other, may also want to read a memo by Barbara Sard available at
http://www.nlihc.org/news/index.htm#vouchers . This link also has fact sheets concerning how the voucher block grant proposal would impact particular stakeholders, including current participants, homeless families and individuals, families with children, and owners.

[Barbara Sard, Director of Housing Policy, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Barbara Sard" bsard@rcn.com ]

2003 Advocates' Guide to Housing & CD Policy
The National Low Income Housing Coalition's guide, describing housing-related programs, proposals, and issues and including appendices that explain the federal legislative and advocacy process, is free at http://www.nlihc.org

Trapped by Poverty, Trapped by Abuse Research Conference
The Center for Impact Research, the University of Michigan School of Social Work, and the University of Texas School of Social Work are pleased to announce the fourth Trapped by Poverty/Trapped by Abuse Research Conference.

We now understand that violence against women is a form of social control with wide-ranging effects on women's poverty.

Domestic violence can interfere with education, training, and work, cause dependence on welfare, or prevent a successful welfare-to-work transition. Domestic violence can sabotage control of reproduction that, in turn, can interfere with economic self-sufficiency. Domestic violence can cause or aggravate alcohol or drug abuse, or cause mental and physical health problems that can also can sabotage employment.

The Trapped by Poverty/Trapped by Abuse research conference brings together researchers, policy makers, service providers, advocates, and elected officials to learn more about these relationships, to explore effective policy responses, and to hear about innovative service delivery strategies.

Conference organizers are taking nominations for the first Sheila and Paul Wellstone Award for Advocacy in Work, Welfare, and Domestic Violence, to be presented at the conference. Details about the award and the nomination process are also available at
http://www.ssw.umich.edu/trapped/nominations.html

Agenda and registration details are now available at
http://www.ssw.umich.edu/trapped/conference.html
For complete agenda and registration materials see
http://www.ssw.umich.edu/trapped/2003brochure-final.pdf

TO CONTACT DELAWARE'S GENERAL ASSEMBLY MEMBERS:
Go to the link on this website.
Or go to the State website.