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The
E-Newsletter of the National AIDS Housing Coalition |
| October 20, 2005 |
Fall 2005 |
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Contents 1. Federal Budget Outlook 2. FY2006 HOPWA Appropriations 3. NAHC Releases Products from the 2005 National Housing and HIV/AIDS Research Summit 4. Update on the Affordable Housing Fund in the GSE Legislation 5. Hurricane Katrina and HIV/AIDS Housing 6. Calendar of Events 7. Join NAHC!
HIV/AIDS & Housing Facts of the Quarter: 25% of the more than 1,000,000 persons with HIV/AIDS in the U.S. do not know they are infected. Those who do not know that they are HIV+ are transmitting the disease at a rate of 8.5% to 11% per year. However, those who are aware of their positive status are transmitting at a much lower rate: 1.7% to 2.5% per year. Research demonstrates that people who are housed are more likely to know their HIV status and therefore less likely to transmit the disease to others. Housing is HIV Prevention.
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Hurricane Katrina has disclosed in stark form the nation’s utter lack of preparedness—at best— or its unwillingness—at worst—to respond on any scale to the needs of its most vulnerable citizens in the face of unprecedented natural disaster. Despite the disaster’s elevation of the issues of poverty and race to the top of the national policy agenda, opportunities to meaningfully address these and other issues impacting the poor are waning. Republicans in Congress have maintained their resolve to proceed with tax cuts funded, in part OR in large part, by reductions targeted at programs that serve the poorest Americans. General agreement about the need for an across-the-board cut in discretionary spending in order to fund hurricane relief and rebuilding efforts has given way to debate around the scale and timing of cuts. Hurricane Katrina has resulted in an extension of the annual Budget Reconciliation process under which House and Senate authorizing committees must recommend budget cuts for programs within their jurisdictions. The House Budget Committee chairman proposed a plan in early October to the Republican Conference for $17 billion in savings from a 2% across the board cut in all discretionary programs. Not surprisingly, chairs of some Appropriations subcommittees, notably Defense and Homeland Security, have registered concerns about the potential impact of cuts with foreign wars and the war on terror in the balance. It is also reported that wary House members fear that across-the-board spending cuts will torpedo efforts to conclude action on the remaining FY2006 appropriations measures, including negotiations with the Senate. Overlaid on reconciliation discussions in the House is Speaker Hastert’s proposal to cut a minimum of $50 billion from the mandatory side of the budget for disaster relief. In the Senate, recommendations for budget cuts to fund hurricane relief efforts are expected to be finalized this week. The Senate is committed to identifying $35 million in savings over five years from mandatory spending programs. The Senate Budget Committee is mining the budget for offsets at the same time that Senate Finance Committee moderates continue their objections to Medicaid, food stamps and other entitlements as targets for cuts. Simultaneously, the Senate Finance Committee is devising a $10 billion mandatory spending cut package that targets Medicaid and Medicare while at the same time advancing a $70 billion tax cut, including making existing tax cuts permanent.
2. FY2006 HOPWA Appropriations In the midst of the macro budget discussions, HOPWA appropriations for FY2006 are advancing. On October 18, the Senate began floor consideration of the Transportation, Treasury and Department of Housing and Urban Development funding bill, including the $287 million funding level for HOPWA recommended in Committee this summer. Action was completed on the measure as NAHC went to press. A proposed amendment by Senator Tom Coburn (OK) to impose a 20% cap on the use of HOPWA dollars for housing-based supportive services was withdrawn. On the House side, Representatives Nadler, Shays and Crowley have distributed a “Dear Colleague” seeking co-sponsors for a letter to the House HUD Appropriations Subcommittee chair and ranking member urging support for a minimum of $290 million for HOPWA in the final appropriations measure – the funding level approved by the House in June. View the action alert regarding the Nadler/Shays/Crowley Dear Colleague letter.
For more information about the NAHC’s
advocacy agenda and legislative priorities, visit our
Advocacy Page.
3. NAHC Releases Products from the 2005 National Housing and HIV/AIDS Research Summit In June 2005, NAHC convened the ground-breaking National Housing and HIV/AIDS Research Summit at the Emory University Center for AIDS Research. Leaders in the housing and AIDS research world presented recent findings linking the epidemic, in terms of both prevention and individual and community health, to housing status. The presented research demonstrates that:
NAHC is using this research to express to policy-makers the importance of federal housing programs as a method of slowing HIV infection rates in the U.S. and improving the health of those living with the disease. In addition, NAHC is making available all of the resulting products from the Summit to our members and those in the field of HIV/AIDS and low-income housing so they can benefit from the existing body of research. Please utilize these materials to educate officials in your local and state government, other nonprofit organizations, and your colleagues about the connections between HIV and housing. Products from NAHC related to the Research Summit include:
Make sure to visit NAHC’s
Research Summit
page for background on the Summit and
updated information on products, including the Briefing Book. 4. Update on the Affordable Housing Fund in the GSE LegislationRecent legislation in the House designed to regulate Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSE) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac includes a component creating an Affordable Housing Fund from GSE after-tax profits (H.R. 1461). The fund, approved in May 2005 by the Financial Services Committee, would be used to produce and rehabilitate low-income housing. Despite broad, bipartisan support for the Fund (the bill, including the Affordable Housing Fund, passed in committee 65-5) Republican leadership has refused to schedule the bill for the House floor until recently. In particular, the influential, conservative 100-member Republican Study Committee (RSC), opposed the fund and tried to prevent the bill from reaching the floor. Last week, it was announced that the RSC had reached a compromise with committee leadership and the bill will be considered the week of October 24. Changes made during the compromise include “sunsetting” the fund after five years, restricting it to 3.5% of GSE after-tax profits for the first three years and 5% for the following two years, and focusing the money to areas affected by Hurricane Katrina. Additionally, the new version will contain a disturbing restriction barring non-profit organizations who wish to apply for money from participating in any voter-registration and non-partisan voter participation activities during their grant period and for 12 months prior to applying (even though these activities would be paid for through their own funds). Additionally, organizations who do not engage in such activities themselves would also be barred from applying if they “affiliate” with an organization that does. For-profits are notably exempt from these restrictions. Housing advocates who support the creation of an Affordable Housing Fund vehemently oppose this “gag provision” that would prohibit almost all experienced and qualified non-profit organizations from the utilizing the funds. Click here for a Call-to-Action, issued by the National Housing Trust Fund Campaign, urging members of Congress to oppose the new restrictive, unfair language. The Senate version of the GSE regulatory bill does not include an Affordable Housing Fund, despite the efforts of Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) and Senator Paul Sarbanes (D-MD).
For more information on the Affordable Housing
Fund, visit the website of the
National Housing Trust Fund Campaign. 5. Hurricane Katrina and HIV/AIDS HousingThe Kaiser Family Foundation recently estimated that there were more than 21,000 people living with HIV in areas affected by Katrina. For these individuals, stable housing is absolutely imperative to their health and continued adherence to antiretroviral treatments and other HIV/AIDS care. On September 23, 2005 HUD and FEMA announced two programs to assist people displaced by the Hurricane: FEMA’s Individual and Household Assistance Program (IHP) and HUD’s Katrina Disaster Housing Assistance Program (KDHAP). IHP is designed to serve people who were renters or homeowners at the time of the disaster while KDHAP serves those previously receiving HUD assistance or who were homeless at the time. Please visit NAHC’s Katrina and HIV/AIDS Housing page for more information about the above programs, useful links, HIV/AIDS Housing providers’ responses, and other information. October 8 - 12: Campaign to End AIDS (C2EA) five days of action in Washington, DC. Visit www.endAIDSnow.org for more information. November 9 – 11: Enterprise Foundation’s annual Network Conference: Changing Communities in a Changing Landscape. Washington, DC. Visit www.enterprisemeetings.org for more information. January 26 -27: National Alliance to End Homelessness conference on Ending Family Homelessness. Oakland, CA. Visit www.naeh.org for more information. February 27 – 28: National Low Income Housing Coalition 2006 Annual Housing Policy Conference and Lobby Day. Washington, DC. Visit www.nlihc.org for more information. The National AIDS Housing Coalition is looking for new members! Please visit our membership page for more information. |
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