March 24th, 2011 – BRONX-BASED HOUSING ORGANIZATION OPPOSES GOVERNOR’S PROPOSED BUDGET WHICH WILL SEND THOUSANDS BACK TO SHELTER SYSTEM
(March 24, 2011) Bronx, NY – The Women’s Housing and Economic Development Corporation (WHEDco), a nonprofit organization that provides hundreds of low-income families with beautiful, safe affordable housing, is deeply concerned about the proposed cuts for affordable housing in Governor Cuomo’s budget.
The Advantage Program -- a crucial rental subsidy for homeless families -- is at risk. Governor Cuomo's proposed Executive Budget withdraws all state and matching federal support for Advantage on April 1, 2011, and terminates the City of New York's authority to continue the program. Without this resource, more than 15,000 households are at risk of eviction.
This cut would not only send thousands of tenants back to city shelters, but it could also tank the nonprofit affordable housing providers that provide decent and permanent homes for families coming out of shelters, over 80% of whom are single mothers with young children.
The Advantage Housing subsidy (a stepchild of Section 8 vouchers) subsidizes the real costs of renting an apartment, above what welfare provides to tenants (which is less than 50% of what is considered affordable even in the Bronx).
Effective, stable permanent housing programs are more cost effective than prolonged shelter stays. Eliminating funding for Advantage would have terrible consequences for tenants and landlords, destabilizing communities and families. One-third of tenants in WHEDco’s two affordable housing developments in the Bronx previously lived in the shelter system, and many will be threatened by a recurrence of homelessness if the Advantage program is eliminated.
Eliminating the Advantage program would cost enormous sums in shelter expenses, eviction costs, loss of rental income for landlords and would have devastating effects on families.
The bottom line is that nonprofit affordable housing providers like WHEDco, who build permanent housing for formerly homeless families, will not be able to continue providing affordable housing for this population without subsidy programs like Advantage.
As stated by Nancy Biberman, WHEDco President, “This cut is a real double whammy. Like it or not, government relies on the non profit sector to do lots of work that we do better, and more economically, than government. Take away Advantage, and you pull the rug out from under our sector, in addition to the people who will likely lose their homes.”
This advocacy comes at the heels of a groundbreaking new report, A Harder Struggle, Fewer Opportunities: The Impact of the Governor’s Proposed Budget on Women, Children & Families, released in partnership with the New York Women’s Foundation today and the Fiscal Policy Institute. The report reveals that low-income women across racial lines – already vulnerable to the continuing effects of the economic recession – bear a disproportionate burden of cuts in Governor Cuomo’s proposed budget and are placed at even greater risk of poverty, and other factors that contribute to long-term economic stagnation.
ABOUT WHEDco
The Women’s Housing and Economic Development Corporation (WHEDco) has worked for nearly twenty years to build a more beautiful, equitable, and economically vibrant Bronx. We reach over 30,000 people annually through energy-efficient, healthy and affordable homes, early childhood education and youth development, family support, home-based childcare microenterprise and food business incubation. www.whedco.org www.whedco.org
Khushbu Srivastava
