With less than 9 months remaining in the current Fiscal Year, the House of Representatives proposed substantial cuts to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that will directly affect NYC<\/p>\n
New York, NY \u2014 Speaker Quinn, New York City Council Members, community leaders, and New York tenants rallied for the U.S. House of Representative to preserve funding for much needed affordable housing and community development projects. The House of Representatives have proposed to cut $5.7 billion from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development \u2014 $400 million of which will directly affect New York City housing programs. This substantial cut will devastate and minimize the budget of several essential programs the City has developed over the years in order to improve the conditions of tenants living both in private and public homes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe U.S. House of Representatives have proposed cuts to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that will be catastrophic for cities across the nation \u2013 particularly for New York City,\u201d said Speaker Christine C. Quinn. \u201cIf these cuts were to go through, New York City would have to absorb $400 million of the pain. And that pain would mean losing essential programs that have helped tenants living in horrendous conditions in the Bronx, and that pain would mean losing housing lawyers to kick out bad landlords in Brooklyn and just simply having the tools and capacity to help all tenants in need across the five boroughs.\u201d<\/p>\n
The House has proposed to cut $2.9 billion to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development\u2019s Community Development Block Grant \u2014 $168 million of which would directly affect New York City. This will severely limit the tools that the City will have when it comes to helping tenants living in distressed building. These block grants fund a substantial portion of the Alternative Enforcement Program, Emergency Repair Program and the City\u2019s Code Enforcement.<\/p>\n
Hundreds of tenants would be living in horrendous conditions, with apartments filled with mold, cracked ceilings and vermin if not for these City programs.<\/p>\n
“Our Federal representatives need to ensure that these proposed cuts to HUD are not carried out,” said Council Member Erik Martin Dilan, the Chair of the City Council’s Housing and Buildings Committee. “The ability of many Americans to obtain adequate and affordable housing is at stake if these drastic cuts go through. We need to do everything in our power to make sure that these cuts are not maintained. Otherwise, the housing crisis that already exists in our country will be exacerbated.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Republicans in Congress seem to take joy in cutting spending that will hurt working-class men, women and families,\u201d said Council Member Al Vann. \u201cThese cuts would be disastrous to many of our city\u2019s communities and the overall health of our city, exacerbating an affordable housing shortage and hurting NYCHA developments that are already inadequately maintained and serviced. New Yorkers must make their voices heard so that a final federal spending plan rescinds these cuts.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m dismayed that cuts by Republicans to the HUD budget would affect the least amongst us so severely,\u201d said Council Member Letitia James. \u201cHow ironic – individuals who need a helping hand with affordable housing are the ones asked to sacrifice, such as through cuts to section 8 voucher funding, as well as a 43% cut to funding for public housing\u2019s overall capital budget. The 21% proposed cut to The US Department of Housing and Urban Development\u2019s overall budget for the rest of this Fiscal Year is simply unconscionable.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThe proposed cuts to HUD funding will adversely affect New Yorkers who already struggle with maintaining and acquiring affordable and safe housing options,\u201d said Council Member Melissa Mark-Viverito. \u201cThe overall proposed $2.9 Billion cut to Community Development Block Grant funding will have a catastrophic effect on all those who depend on the services of HPD to ensure their residences are safe and adhere to the standards set forth by NYC\u2019s Code Enforcement. Programs that were created to revitalize and improve communities through economic development, educational opportunities, and social services should not be scaled back when there is still much work to be done \u2014 especially in our immigrant communities and our communities of color. We cannot continue to allow the burden of budgetary shortfalls to be shouldered by citizens who desperately need our help.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe proposed House budget cuts to the City’s HUD and NYCHA budgets are disastrous. In these harsh economic times, as the demand for these programs increases exponentially, it is essential that affordable housing programs and community development initiatives keep working people and families in their homes,\u201d said Council Member Gale A. Brewer. \u201cIn addition, the cuts to NYCHA – removing funds for everything from basic repairs to the serious capital needs of the aging housing stock – is tantamount to pulling the lifeline the supports many low income New Yorkers. The number one constituent complaint to our office and to many other offices is the lack of affordable housing, and the need to repair and maintain the affordable units that exist. New Yorkers desperately need federal funds from HUD for NYCHA and other subsidized housing; our future workforce is dependent on such infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n
On March 18th, Congress will have to take action whether to allow these cuts or to keep funding for agencies as is. If Congress chose not to act, there could be a potential government shutdown. Elected officials from both the State and Federal level are outraged at these proposed cuts and what they would do to New York City.
\n \u201cHouse Republicans\u2019 misguided attempts to put critical affordable housing programs on the chopping block would endanger the security, safety and health of hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers,
\nsaid Senator Kristen Gillibrand. \u201cWe must ensure continued adequate funding for HUD to help city families and revitalize urban communities.\u201d
\n\u201cLike most all of the cuts in the House Republicans\u2019 budget, the funding cuts to HUD are ill-planned and harmful,\u201d said Congressman Jos\u00e9 E. Serrano. \u201cCuts to housing programs hurt the most vulnerable among us\u2014at the same time as huge tax cuts have been handed out to those who least need it. Our country needs to ensure that we cushion the blow of the ongoing economic difficulties, not take away vital support like housing assistance programs.\u201d<\/p>\n
“As the Chairman of the State Assembly Subcommittee on Public Housing, I find it outrageous that during a recession where communities of color are disproportionately under increased financial strain, the House Majority is seeking to further burden these vulnerable citizens with threats upon their households,” said Assemblyman Keith Wright of Harlem. “I encourage Speaker Boehner to get real and stop playing political games with our residents, who often have nowhere else to go.”<\/p>\n
“At a time when it is nearly impossible for low – and moderate – income New Yorkers to find decent, affordable housing, and the devastating effects of the foreclosure crisis are still being felt in New York City, it is unconscionable that House Republicans have proposed a budget that would eliminate hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding for our City and State,\u201d said Senator Liz Krueger (D-Manhattan). \u201cThis is not just a City issue, every New Yorker will feel the pain if we lose this vital federal funding.”<\/p>\n
Aimed at increasing the pressure on the owners of some of the City\u2019s most distressed residential buildings to bring the buildings up to code, the Alternative Enforcement Program focuses on a small percentage of buildings that generate a disproportionate percentage of HPD\u2019s current enforcement activity. These cuts would directly affect this program.<\/p>\n
Recently, the Council expanded this innovative legislation which established the AEP \u2013 the New York City Safe Housing Law \u2013 has effectively identified and improved residential housing conditions in some of the city\u2019s worst buildings. Since it was first passed, New York families have benefited from the substantial improvements that resulted from the Safe Housing Law. The proposed expansions will now specifically designate asthma triggers, including mold conditions and vermin infestation, as conditions mandating improvement and will both increase the number of housing units that are captured by the law and will identify new conditions requiring improvement.<\/p>\n
However without funding, innovative and proactive programs like this will be stunted, communities will struggle to develop and tenants will live in horrible conditions. In addition, not only would the Department of Housing and Preservation Development have to cut entire programs, 1,100 staffing positions would also be at risk.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe proposed cuts would leave NYC very vulnerable particularly underprivileged people who would be at the mercy of negligent landlords with no one to enforce good conditions,\u201d said Alvin Horton, President of the 3315 Holland Tenant Association at Milbank. \u201cIt would leave tenants who are already in dire straits to choose between living in dangerous conditions and homelessness.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThese proposed budget cuts, if enacted, will literally destroy our local government\u2019s ability to ensure that New Yorkers are living in decent, safe and sanitary housing, which ironically is the very cornerstone of HUD\u2019s mission,\u201d said Andrew Reicher, UHAB Executive Director. At a time when so much affordable housing is in a state of disrepair, we simply cannot afford to have these crucial funding streams diminished.\u201d<\/p>\n
The House of Representatives is also calling to cut $1.1 billion, or 43 percent, from the Public Housing\u2019s capital budget \u2014 $250 million of which will trickle down to New York City\u2019s public housing funding. Currently, the New York City Housing Authority already faces serious challenges in preserving its 180,000 public housing units in 340 developments across the city. This is a primary affordable housing resource for the City\u2019s low-income families. <\/p>\n
If these cuts were to go through, this would only accelerate deterioration to the City\u2019s public housing stock, not to mention create long delays in responding to common repair needs, and deferring much needed major capital improvements.
\n“Today, our city is in a housing crisis, with an ever shrinking affordable housing stock and cuts at all levels of government,” said Council Member Annabel Palma, Chair of the General Welfare Committee. “Millions of struggling New Yorkers demand answers from their government, but instead, House Republicans have chosen to engage in political brinkmanship by threatening millions of dollars in funding for these crucial housing programs. If the goal of the Congress is to relegate the working poor in our country to blighted communities and urban ghettos, then this budget is certainly a step in that direction. Along with my colleagues, I call on the Federal Government to do better by its people and eliminate these devastating cuts from this year\u2019s budget resolution.”
\n\u201cThe House Budget slashes capital funding for public housing by 43 percent, at a time when NYCHA residents are experiencing accelerating deterioration, year-long waits for needed repairs, and a postponed $7 billion backlog in major capital improvements,\u201d said Erik Crawford, Tenant Association President, Davidson Houses, South Bronx. \u201cThis is a direct attack on our housing, on our communities, and on our city. We will not let these cuts be made on the backs of New York\u2019s lower income communities. We will do what we need to do to stop them from moving forward to the Senate.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFurther cuts in federal funding for public housing would be devastating to low-income New Yorkers and neighborhoods,\u201d said Bishop Mitchell G. Taylor, East River Development Alliance Founder and President. \u201cWe already see long wait times for repairs, which would only be exacerbated. In this economy, as applications for public housing have greatly increased and current residents of public housing are struggling to keep up with their rent, it is even more critical that the federal government steps to the plate to fulfill its responsibility to provide stable, affordable, high-quality housing for low-income Americans. These cuts would be devastating to the communities the East River Development Alliance serves in Queens and to low-income communities throughout the nation.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe must make Public Affordable and Low Income housing untouchable line items in the federal budget because NYCHA and our residential facilities are Historic Landmarks of this city\u2019s historic Commitment to housing,\u201d said Reginald H. Bowman, President of the City-Wide Council of Presidents. \u201cPublic and subsidized Housing are essential elements of the \u2018Infrastructure and Economic Anchors\u2019 of our Local, Municipal, and regional geo political economy.\u201d<\/p>\n
“The Legal Aid Society opposes these cuts which will devastate the public housing community, our most important source of housing for the lowest income New Yorkers,” said Judith Goldiner, Supervising Attorney of Legal Aid Society.<\/p>\n
\u201cMore than 500,000 HUD subsidized apartments have been lost to market conversions and demolitions. These apartments held entire families. We can\u2019t afford to lose any more,\u201d said Lonene Crawford, a disabled former legal secretary and Board member of the National Alliance of HUD Tenants, NY in Harlem. \u201cThe Voucher programs that are being cut include aid for Homeless Veterans, the Disabled, Senior Citizens and Public Housing Tenants. These cuts will put countless people on the street. The CDBG cuts will cripple the safety net agencies. Where are all of the tenants supposed to live after age or illnesses have rendered them no longer middle class but low income and every safety net program is being gutted?\u201d<\/p>\n
These cuts in addition will severely reduce the Neighborhood Preservation Consultant Program. The NPCP provide essential services such as protecting tenants from eviction and being a voice for tenants in buildings where conditions are in disrepair.
\n\u201cIt makes no sense that congress would use the crisis as an excuse to cut the funding that is our best response to that crisis,\u201d said Benjamin Dulchin, Executive Director of the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development. \u201cThe recession we are all suffering is rooted in problems with the housing market and has had a terrible impact on housing conditions in our city. Yet, the federal support that is being cut is the core funding that the City and community groups use to address those very housing problems.
\n\u201cWe use these funds to keep tenants in their apartments save affordable housing. We can\u2019t help stabilize our neighborhood without the Neighborhood Preservation Consultant Program,\u201d said Deb Howard, the Executive Director of the Pratt Area Community Council. \u201cThis program has done so much over the years to revitalize neighborhoods, and with the economic crisis, this is the worst of all possible times for drastic cuts.\u201d<\/p>\n
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With less than 9 months remaining in the current Fiscal Year, the House of Representatives proposed substantial cuts to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that will directly affect NYC<\/p>\n
New York, NY \u2014 Speaker Quinn, New York City Council Members, community leaders, and New York tenants rallied for the U.S. House of Representative to preserve funding for much needed affordable housing and community development projects.<\/p>\n
…<\/p>\n