JOE FINN
‘Horrendous’ cuts

Furious over Gov. Mitt Romney’s cuts to housing and homelessness prevention programs that they say will force hundreds – if not thousands – of low-income families onto the streets, housing advocates are urging lawmakers and the governor-elect to take immediate steps to restore funding.

Romney slashed $425 million from the budget just before Veterans Day, arguing that the Legislature’s level of spending would create a budget deficit. The cuts came after Romney already had vetoed a bill passed by the Legislature that would have allowed money to be transferred from the state’s rainy-day reserve funds to cover some of the spending.

The funding reductions infuriated and shocked some housing groups that were relying on the money to help some of the state’s neediest families.

“It was a complete surprise because it’s only November and for the governor to issue cuts for the entire fiscal year seemed premature, to say the least – and to do it on a day when no one could really defend themselves Â… also seemed disingenuous,” said Maureen Flynn, deputy director of the Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations.

Axed from the budget were $3.2 million from the Massachusetts Rental Voucher Program, a $26 million program that provides rental subsidies to low-income tenants, and $2 million from the Residential Assistance for Families in Transition program, which helps families pay back rent, security deposits and unpaid utility bills.

The reduction to RAFT, which had been funded at $5 million and assisted about 3,200 families last year, means that the program has effectively been shut down, according to Julia Kehoe, executive director of the Metropolitan Boston Housing Partnership.

Kehoe said MBHP, which issues rental vouchers and RAFT assistance, was supposed to review applications from 110 families who were interested in receiving help just last week, and there were another 60 that were promised assistance and now probably won’t receive it.

“People are in imminent risk of eviction. By January, a lot of people will fall into homelessness,” said Kehoe.

“Because of the cuts to both the RAFT and MRVP programs, nearly 2,000 households will become homeless or will be stuck in shelters this year,” she added.

Romney’s press office did not respond to a request for comment by Banker & Tradesman’s press deadline.

‘Precipitous Action’
Stephanie Brown, executive director of Homes For Families, said about 1,250 families who are homeless or at-risk of becoming homeless won’t get the assistance they need to move into housing because of the RAFT cuts. Demand for assistance through the program has been so strong that RAFT funding was depleted about halfway through the last fiscal year.

“Essentially, now the program is frozen. There were households who had the promise of assistance and were waiting for a check for security deposits or utility start-up and now they may not get it. That just put their new housing in serious jeopardy. Other families in emergency shelters who thought they would be able to move out soon will not have that opportunity,” Brown said.

According to Brown, the $3.2 million reduction to the rental voucher program means that 500 vouchers won’t be issued to families, elders and the disabled. Individuals who are eligible for vouchers make no more than $19,600 annually.

“The Romney administration has a housing-first policy around homelessness and they talk about having a system where families don’t have to go into shelter, where they can move into housing and be supported. And yet they’re cutting the two programs that make that possible. If we don’t have housing, we can’t do housing first,” Brown said.

Just last month, Romney signed into a law a bill that aims to end homelessness through the creation of a five-year housing plan, and his administration has talked about the need to focus on a housing-first strategy instead of relying heavily on the emergency shelter system.

A coalition of housing groups – including MACDC and the Citizens Housing and Planning Association – sent a letter to the chairmen of the Joint Committee on Housing and key legislative leaders last week requesting that a public oversight hearing be held to discuss the impact of the budget cuts. The letter also called on the Legislature to return to formal session to override Romney’s veto of the transfer of rainy-day funds, as well as pass a new supplemental budget to replace the funding cuts.

Some critics argued that the transfer from the rainy-day reserves won’t even be needed given recent revenue projections, and called Romney’s cuts premature and unnecessary at this point.

Michael J. Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, said because December and January are traditionally months that see big tax revenues, the state’s leaders will have a much better sense of the state’s fiscal health in a few more months.

“We think [the cuts] are unnecessary at this time. We’re only four months into the fiscal year Â… I think there’s a likelihood that the tax revenues will exceed the conservative forecast that’s built into the budget,” said Widmer.

“We agree with the governor that it is not desirable to draw from rainy-day reserves in an economic recovery but we think there’s a likelihood that revenues will grow sufficiently to cover the level of spending and produce a balanced budget without these cuts,” he added. “There’s no fiscal reason for the precipitous action at this time.”

In addition to the voucher and RAFT programs, Romney struck $1.5 million from the Soft Second Loan Program. The program, which has assisted about 8,800 low-income homebuyers throughout the state in the last 15 years and which Governor-elect Deval Patrick expressed support of during his campaign, had been funded at $5 million.

Flynn, of MACDC, said the Soft Second program has been a “huge success” and buyers who have purchased homeownership units developed by community development corporations throughout the state have relied on loans from the program.

“It seems like [the governor] just went after a lot of programs and services that the most vulnerable people in our state rely and depend on to get the basic necessities out of life,” she said.

Romney also eliminated $410,332 from the budget that would have been used for 300 extra shelter beds for the winter, and $600,000 that was set aside for Home and Healthy for Good, a pilot program designed to move chronically homeless people with serious health problems into housing where they can receive medical and support services.

“Here it is November – the worst time of year – and he’s cutting those extra beds,” said Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance Executive Director Joe Finn, who called the cuts “horrendous.”

Finn, who lobbied for funding for the Home and Healthy for Good program, said that the South Middlesex Opportunity Council – a social-service agency that shut down its Framingham shelter earlier this year – was depending on the pilot program to move about 30 homeless individuals into permanent housing.

“It’s very disappointing that a man Â… who said he was about ending homelessness does not understand the significance of the impact this is having on the lives of people,” Finn said of Romney.

MBHP’s Kehoe pointed out while the cuts to shelters were significant, there was a much more dramatic reduction in funding for homelessness prevention programs.

“This is ironic because this administration has put an emphasis in changing systems and ending homelessness,” she said.

Housing groups want Patrick to suspend the cuts when he takes office in January.

“We believe the cuts are inconsistent with the goal of ending homelessness and they’re not cost-effective given that it costs more to place folks in emergency shelter as opposed to housing,” said Chris Norris, assistant director of CHAPA.

“We’re calling upon the governor-elect to state his support of affordable housing and the people it serves. He was quite clear in his opposition to the elimination of the Turnpike tolls. We hope he speaks just as clearly when it comes to housing for the homeless and people at risk for homelessness,” Norris said.

Patrick has stated his position about Romney’s cuts through his communication team.

In a prepared statement e-mailed to Banker & Tradesman, Richard Chacon, Patrick’s communications director, said, “Governor-elect Patrick will review the budget he inherits and the cuts Romney has proposed – and will balance the budget. He does not believe that significant depletion of the rainy-day fund is fiscally responsible and will review cuts, where necessary and prudent, to balance the budget.”