The Affordable Housing Bulletin
November 19, 2004

In this issue:

In Delaware
DHC Annual Membership Meeting
Affordable Housing Economic Impact Study Released
Housing Trust Fund Working Group Sends Letter to Governor Minner
Delaware Endorsers of the Five-Year Strategic Housing Plan

Nationally
Administration Seeks Deep Cuts in Housing Vouchers
U.S.: Broad Range of Offenders Denied Public Housing

DHC Annual Membership Meeting ~ December 3
The Annual Meeting of the membership of the Delaware Housing Coalition will take place on Friday, December 3, from 10:00 am to Noon, in the conference room of NCALL Research, 363 Saulsbury Road, Dover, and will include brunch, annual business meeting, reports to membership, and election of 2005 board members and officers.

To attend: Please notify us by calling Ken Smith (302/678-2286, x101) or by email: dhc@housingforall.org


Affordable Housing Economic Impact Study Released
Fully funding ($60 million) the Five-Year Strategic Housing Plan would result in over $420 million in economic activity and the creation of over 3400 jobs in Delaware.

Investing to Meet Delaware's Affordable Housing Needs: An Economic Impact Analysis, a study detailing the positive economic impact for Delaware created by public investment in housing, was released on Monday, November 15. The study was commissioned by the DHC and conducted by Dr. William Latham of the University of Delaware Department of Economics. It was sponsored by Deutsche Bank Trust Company Delaware, JPMorgan Chase, and MBNA America Bank, N.A.

The study details the benefits by county in increased income, jobs, taxes, and economic activity resulting from full funding of the Five-Year proposal.

A version of the full study is posted on our website, along with a summary of the principal conclusions.


Housing Trust Fund Working Group Sends Letter to Governor Minner
The Delaware Housing Coalition, on behalf of the Housing Trust fund Working Group, followed Monday's release of its new economic impact study with a letter to Governor Ruth Ann Minner requesting that an additional $8 million in new funds be invested this coming fiscal year in the state's Housing Development Fund (HDF). The HDF is the state's housing trust fund, created to invest in affordable homeownership and rental opportunities throoughout Delaware.

Along with an expected annual allocation of about $3.4 million from the General Assembly and $1.1 million in revenues from document recording fees, the $8 million new dollars would help keep the state on track toward an overall five-year investment of $60 million.

Governor Minner and the General Assembly put $6 million new dollars in the HDF in the current fiscal year.

The letter to Governor Minner can be found at www.housingforall.org.

Delaware Endorsers of the Five-Year Strategic Housing Plan
There are now over 30 endorsers of the Five-Year Strategic Plan.

Your group can become an endorser by going to the DHC website and downloading and filling out the endorsement form .

On the site, you will also find a list of the endorsers to date and the names and addresses of all the members of the Delaware General Assembly.


Administration Seeks Deep Cuts in Housing Vouchers
The Bush administration is seeking deep cuts in the Section 8 housing voucher program and its conversion to a block grant. Next year's budget could cut the number of assisted families by 250,000, with this number increasing to 600,000 — or 30% of all Assisted Families — by 2009.

In Delaware, voucher subsidy funding could be reduced by over $9 million by fiscal year 2009, necessitating cuts in service to over 1400 families.

A report by Barbara Sard and Will Fischer of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities indicates that the Administration’s new budget would cut funding for “Section 8” housing vouchers in 2005 by more than $1 billion below the 2004 level. The budget would cut the Section 8 program further in subsequent years.

The budget also would make radical changes in the program’s structure. It would replace the voucher program with a block grant to local housing agencies (labeled the “Flexible Voucher Program”) and, in so doing, repeal basic protections for low-income families that were developed on a bipartisan basis and have undergirded the program for decades. The block-grant proposal also would leave the program vulnerable to substantial further funding erosion over time.

A fact sheet on the crisis is also available for community education on the threat this constitutes.


U.S.: Broad Range of Offenders Denied Public Housing
Across the United States, hundreds of thousands of poor people have been denied access to public housing because they have criminal records, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. They have been excluded for often minor and long-ago offenses that have no bearing on public safety, which is the goal of strict admission policies. Based on research across the country, the 101-page report "No Second Chance" is the first examination of "one strike" policies in public housing. Established to protect housing developments from potentially dangerous tenants, these policies automatically exclude applicants with certain criminal records. Unfortunately, the criteria for exclusion are needlessly overbroad and can exclude certain offenders for life-regardless of evidence of their rehabilitation.

"Everyone deserves safe housing, but these policies yield more misery and desperation than public safety," said Corinne Carey, researcher for Human Rights Watch's U.S. Program.