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.
"What you have for disabled folks is you're getting a double whammy," said Jonathan Harwitz, director of public policy for the Corporation for Supportive Housing, which promotes housing for people with special needs. "You're looking at both the landlord making a decision, 'Do I even want to rely on Section 8?' and secondly, saying, 'Do I want a disabled person in here?' Because that's an additional issue."
Section 811 has existed for three decades, first as part of the Section 202 program for the elderly, and then, starting in the 1990's, as its own program. Since 1998, HUD has awarded $83 million to New York State, out of $1 billion nationwide, to nonprofits, according to the Technical Assistance Collaborative, a national advocacy group.
In New York City, going back to the early 1980's, 522 Section 811 units have been developed on city-owned sites that were sold to nonprofit developers for nominal amounts, said Carol Abrams, a spokeswoman for the Department of Housing Preservation and Development. An additional 52 units are under construction.
One nonprofit group that has benefited from Section 811 is the Bridge, a nonprofit mental health rehabilitation agency. The agency has finished eight such projects since 1979 and has three more on the way, which will serve 231 clients in Manhattan and the Bronx.
If the capital financing is eliminated, however, the agency would have to compete with more established housing groups in the future to raise private funds to build any additional housing. And that, said Dr. Peter D. Beitchman, its executive director, would be a major challenge.
To Andrew Sperling, director of legislative advocacy for the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, the administration's proposal is especially disappointing because HUD unveiled new guidelines this month to give people with disabilities more time to find accessible and affordable housing.
February 22, 2005 By DAVID W. CHEN © New York Times
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