Truly disgusting:

From the New York Times: Bush Budget Proposes Halt in Housing Aid for Disabled (emp add)

With little fanfare, the Bush administration is proposing to stop financing the construction of new housing for the mentally ill and physically handicapped as part of a 50 percent cut in its housing budget for people with disabilities.

The proposal, which has been overshadowed by the administration's plans to shrink its community development programs, affects what is known as the Section 811 program. Since 1998, Section 811 has helped nonprofit developers produce more than 11,000 units of housing for low-income people with disabilities, including more than 700 in New York State.

Until now, Section 811 has provided equal amounts each year, roughly, for financing for new construction, and rent subsidies for disabled tenants. But under the 2006 budget proposal, the capital allocation would be eliminated and the overall budget would shrink by half, to $120 million from $238 million.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development did not respond to repeated requests for comment over the last week. But the proposal appears to comport with the administration's broader determination to trim domestic programs in the face of record deficits.

The proposal is reminiscent, though on a much smaller scale, of what happened to public housing decades ago. That was when the federal government retreated from building public housing in favor of providing vouchers under programs like Section 8, which allows poor tenants to redeem those vouchers with private landlords.

This time, the federal government would discontinue financing housing for people with spinal cord injuries or psychiatric illnesses who are not necessarily homeless but may live in nursing homes or psychiatric hospitals.

By relying exclusively on vouchers, the federal government would essentially be lumping these people with able-bodied Section 8 recipients in competing for some of the same apartments.

To clarify:

• No more houses built for the disabled.
• The voucher program stays the same size - with twice as many people competing for vouchers. (approx.)
• Savings: $120 million = less than a day's cost for the Iraq war.

When will people call Bush on his bogus "compassionate conservative" stance?

posted by Quiddity at 2/22/2005 08:28:00 AM