The
Affordable
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The Affordable Housing Bulletin
July 11, 2003

In this issue:
In Delaware
Delaware's Food Stamp Caseload Jumped
State Wide Housing Needs Assessment Available Online
National Moving to Work Program Comparisons

Elsewhere
Proposed Earned Income Tax Credit Changes
Housing Costs Help Make Poverty Expensive
HUD Releases New Public Housing Occupancy Guidebook
New Issue of Shelterforce

Delaware's Food Stamp Caseload Jumped Due to Better Outreach, Poor Economy
(News Journal, Wilmington, DE, July 7, 2003) The number of low-income people participating in the federal Food Stamp Program in Delaware increased by 19 percent since last year, well above the national rate of increase. The state's caseload has increased from 29,000 people in the summer of 2000 to the current number of 47,000 recipients. State officials cite a simplified application process and a statewide outreach program that targets food pantry users who do not receive federal benefits. Delaware's state government, along with the Food Bank of Delaware and the University of Delaware, received a $350,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to improve outreach efforts further. The food bank's outreach effort (interviewing emergency food recipients) was able to connect 80 percent of the people interviewed with food stamps. Full story at: http://www.delawareonline.com/newsjournal/local/2003/07/07foodstampdemand.html  [FRAC News Digest, July 10, 2003, http://www.frac.org/newsdigest/ ]

State Wide Housing Needs Assessment Available Online
The recently released State wide Housing Needs Assessment, completed for the Delaware State Housing Authority by Mullin Lonergan and Associates, is available for download on the DSHA website at http://www2.state.de.us/dsha  [Fernando Guajardo, Delaware State Housing Authority, fernando@dsha.state.de.us ]

National Moving to Work Program Comparisons
A comparison of Moving to Work public housing demonstration programs nationally is available on the DHC website by going to http://www.housingforall.org/mtw_comparison.htm

Proposed Earned Income Tax Credit Changes
The IRS has proposed requiring certain filers claiming the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) to “pre-certify”. To “pre-certify” an EITC filer who claims a child must prove that the child has lived with them for at least six months. Those that must “pre-certify” are those EITC filers who claim children, married parents and single female parents claiming their own children are exempt. This would cause grandparents and other relatives who are raising their grandchildren, nieces, nephews, and other relatives to have to “pre - certify”. The requirement to “pre-certify” would also apply to single fathers and foster parents. The proposed changes would require EITC filers to “pre-certify” by completing a new tax form, the Qualifying Children Residency Statement, Form 8836 and including an approved form of residency verification or having an approved third party complete and sign an affidavit attesting that they have “personal knowledge” that the child has resided with the filer for at least six months.

The proposed changes have caused great alarm within communities serving low income families. Many are concerned that the proposed changes would create insurmountable barriers to a program that has proven effective in assisting low income families in moving out of poverty. The IRS plans to begin with a pilot program in which 45,000 EITC filers will receive pre certification notices in August and will be asked to submit all required forms and documents by December 31, 2003.

The IRS has announced a public comment period on the proposed EITC pre-certification process. Comments are to be submitted by 5 p.m. on July 14. Attached is a sample letter for you to use as an example when drafting your own letter. The IRS will not recognize letters drafted in the same format. If you want to use the sample letter as your letter, please change the order of the paragraphs and add something specific to your organization.

What Can You Do To Influence The IRS On The Proposed Changes To The EITC Program?

- Submit comments to the IRS explaining how the proposed changes will affect the low income families you serve.
- Submit comments to the IRS on Form 8836.

To email your comments on the pre-certification process send to:
notice.comments@irscounsel.treas.gov

To email your comments on Form 8836 send to:
http://www.irs.gov/formspubs/page/0,,id=10179,00.html

All comments may be mailed to CC:PA:RU (Announcement 2003-40), room 5226, Internal Revenue Service, POB 7604, Ben Franklin Station, Washington, DC 20044.

To learn more about the proposed changes or receive more detailed instructions on how to file comments, please visit the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities website at http://www.cbpp.org/eitc-precert.htm  [Harry Lawson, National Low Income Housing Coalition harry@nlihc.org ]

Housing Costs Help Make Poverty Expensive
The Annie E. Casey Foundation's analysis of its annual Kids Count data includes the shortage of affordable rural housing among the obstacles to economic security for low-income Americans. "The High Cost of Being Poor," related publications, and interactive data are available at http://www.aecf.org/kidscount  . Hard copies of the publications are free from the foundation, 410-547-6600. [HAC News: July 11, 2003, http://www.ruralhome.org/pubs/hacnews/index.htm ]

HUD Releases New Public Housing Occupancy Guidebook
HUD introduced the first Public Housing Occupancy Guidebook in over twenty years! The guidebook is designed to serve as a reference tool to assist public housing staff and HUD with a range of issues related to public housing occupancy, from application and rent calculations through ongoing occupancy to lease termination. Highlighted changes contained in the guidebook include a new method for determining imputed income from assets and earned income disallowance (see Chapter 10 for both changes). Consistent with the Multi-family Housing program, PHAs will now use a national passbook saving rate of two percent. Regarding the earned income disallowance requirement, an earned income disallowance calculator has been developed and will be available on the new Rental Housing Integrity Improvement Project (RHIIP) web site coming soon. This calculator will serve to complement the new methodology for calculating the disallowance amount and also create records of data that can track the earned income disallowance activity for each participant.

To download the Public Housing Occupancy Guidebook (Adobe PDF, 235 pages) and appendices, go to: http://www.hud.gov/utilities/intercept.cfm?/offices/pih/programs/ph/rhiip/phguidebook.pdf

[Richard Tennenbaum, Connecticut Legal Services, www.connlegalservices.org ]

New Issue of Shelterforce
Important reading in Shelterforce, the national journal of affordable housing and community building. The latest issue of Shelterforce is now online. http://www.nhi.org/online/issues/sf129.html  Articles include:

City Journal's Nutty Attack--
When a community group successfully organizes the poor and working class around issues like a living wage and immigrant rights, it's bound to catch the attention of the Right. That's exactly what ACORN has done, inspiring a tirade in City Journal, the mouthpiece of the Manhattan Institute. In the current issue of Shelterforce, John Atlas and Peter Dreier review why ACORN succeeds where other community organizations have failed - and why it has conservatives up in arms. http://www.nhi.org/online/issues/129/ACORN.html

The Business of CDCs--
While CDCs are focused on trying to revitalize neighborhoods, what makes them tick behind the scenes? There are many questions that lurk in the background of the field as it matures: * What can CDCs learn from stories of their colleagues' failure - from drastic shrinkage to collapse? * Is it better to merge with another local CDC than continue competing for funding? If so, how do you do it in a way that is fair, effective, and preserves the best of both organizations? * Why is collaboration so hard and what are the factors of success?

A series of articles in this issue of Shelterforce takes on these questions in a searching look at the business of CDCs. http://www.nhi.org/online/issues/sf129.html  [Miriam Axel-Lute miriam@nhi.org ]

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