2011 Advocates’ Guide to Housing & Community Development Policy now available
NLIHC Conference Update
Federal Update
HUD Releases Supplemental Report that Focuses on Disability among Households with Worst Case Need
2011 Advocates’ Guide to Housing and Community Development Policy now available NLIHC’s 2011 guide “provides advocates, policymakers, students, and others with information on the most relevant housing and housing-related programs and issues at the federal level, as well as information related to the community planning process. The Guide can help anyone become an effective housing advocate”. To order a copy or inquire about bulk rates, contact Sarah Brundage, Communications Associate, at sarah@nlihc.org. You can view the guide for free here at VAHC’s website: http://www.vtaffordablehousing.org/documents/resources/688_2011-Advocates-Guide.pdf NLIHC Conference Report Vermont had a strong showing at the NLIHC’s 2011 conference. There were residents from Northgate and Westgate, as well as other housing advocates and board members from VAHC. We attended the state partner’s meeting, conference workshops and Lobby day from March 27 – 30. On Lobby day, we met with the Vermont congressional team to talk about important issues facing affordable housing in Vermont and gained information on the looming Federal budget debate. For more information on the conference: attend our Monthly meeting next Wednesday, April 13, from 9:30am – 11:30am at the Vermont Center for Independent Living. The 2011 conference had more low-income advocates than ever before including more residents in attendance. The workshops covered a broad range of housing information. The plenary sessions included some great speakers and public representatives: Michelle Singletary, a Washington Post syndicated columnist; HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan; Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA); and Representative Keith Ellison (D-MN); who all spread a strong message of support for affordable housing and dedication to improving it. The following articles provide in-depth coverage of conference events: NLIHC’s Congressional District Profiles http://www.nlihc.org/detail/article.cfm?article_id=3810&id=61; Also read this month’s Memo to Members: http://nlihc.org/doc/Memo16-13.pdf Federal Update The White House has been working closely on negotiations between House and Senate leadership to come to a deal before the Continuing Resolution runs out on April 8. Congressional leaders have agreed on a tip line figure of $33 billion in cuts below the President’s FY11 budget requests for the remaining six months of FY11. The conflict lies in where to cut that money from. HUD Releases Supplemental Report that Focuses on Disability among Households with Worst Case Need This report is a supplement to the 2009 Worst Case Housing Needs report released Feb. 1, 2011. Some of the major findings are:
In 2009, 2.6 million very low income renter households had at least one non-elderly person with a disability.
Nearly one million of these households (978,000) had severe housing problems and did not receive any housing assistance.
Renter households with a disabled member are more vulnerable than non-disabled households to housing problems such as severe rent burden (34% vs. 24%), severely inadequate housing (4% vs. 3%), and crowding, defined as more than 1 person per room (5% vs. 4%).
Disabled households are more than two times more likely to receive rental assistance than non-disabled households, and even among very low income households they are nearly twice as likely to receive assistance.
Together the Worst Case Needs and supplemental reports both find that nearly a third of worst case needs households are likely to have at least one member with a physical or mental limitation.
The report also concludes, however, that these numbers represent an undercount of the disabled among the worst case needs population. A comparison in the report to data sources such as the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) and the American Community Survey (ACS) suggests the number and rate of disability among the very low income renter population is substantially higher than the AHS reports. The report, 2009 Worst Case Housing Needs of People with Disabilities: Supplemental Findings of the Worst Case Housing Needs 2009: Report to Congress can be found at http://www.huduser.org/portal/publications/affhsg/wcn_disability.html (**NOTE**We had Trouble accessing this link, and could not download actual report – you can try it or contact HUD User at: 1-800-245-2691)