Capitol Connect

We are just three weeks away from the official end of legislative session, and nearly every day brings a new development at the Capitol. The 80 Homes for All organizational members and many more individual supporters have been lending their voices to ensure that thousands of low-income Minnesotans avoid homelessness and can access housing that is affordable and safe.  Key bills head to conference committees this week, where differences between House and Senate proposals will be ironed out. So it's an essential time to be engaged.

The Obama administration recently released its long-awaited 2014 budget. While it preserves important affordable housing programs, advocates have their work cut out for them to ensure that these programs receive adequate funding to continue to be able to serve low income households.

In spite of the dreary weather outside, there has been some very encouraging news from the state capitol on bonding for affordable housing. Investments in bonding through Minnesota Housing directly support some of Minnesota's lowest income residents, and indirectly enable other housing needs to be met. The bonding resources primarily:

• produce housing for formerly homeless individuals and families
• stabilize housing for Minnesotans at or just above the poverty level. People who benefit are those who qualify for public housing or for housing subsidized through the Section 8 program.

In addition, bonding resources free up Minnesota Housing to direct some of its other, more flexible funds to cover unmet community housing needs not supported through bonding, such as workforce housing.

Here's a recap of what's been happening with bonding at the Capitol:

Sequestration, automatic across-the-board cuts to federal defense and non-defense discretionary spending, was meant to be a disincentive for political gridlock.  However, it apparently did not serve its intended purpose as federal lawmakers were not able to agree on a deficit reduction package by the March 1st deadline.

Though advocates hoped Congress would craft an alternative deficit reduction package when it recently took up the 2013 budget bill, on March 21, 2013, Congress passed a 2013 budget bill that reaffirms sequestration. Needless to say, this is bad news for housing and the impacts of sequestration are already being felt in Minnesota. A federal and state summary follows, along with a call for advocates to make their voices heard in light of the devastating cuts.