70,000 Fewer Poor Families Got Help With Rent Last Year Thanks To Budget Cuts

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http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/02/26/3335111/rent-assistance-sequestration/

Sequestration’s automatic budget cuts last year meant that about 70,000 fewer low-income families were getting housing vouchers to help cover rent in December compared to the year before, according to new projections from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. That’s more than the organization had originally projected.

Sequestration cut the Housing Choice Voucher Program, which funds rental assistance for low-income families, by almost $1 billion last year. That meant about three-quarters of state and local housing agencies had to reduce the number of families that got help.
While Congress passed a budget in December that restored some of the funding that had been cut by sequestration, housing agencies will still only be able to restore less than half of the vouchers this year that they had to cut last year. President Obama’s upcoming budget will include funding to put spending back to pre-sequestration levels, although some programs would still face cuts.

Rental assistance was one of the programs that was immediately impacted by sequestration cuts, even before they went into full effect in March of last year. Over the winter, housing authorities began to slow down the number of people who moved off of waiting lists in anticipation of cuts — already long, as only one in four eligible families gets any kind of rental assistance. When the cuts actually hit, some people who had been given vouchers actually had them rescinded, a devastating blow given that most people wait months or even years to get help. Authorities then froze the waiting lists and didn’t give any freed up vouchers to new applicants, reducing the number being served even further. Housing authorities also reduced the amount of rent covered by a voucher, increasing how much needy families need to cover themselves.