BILL REQ. #:  H-1163.1 

Read first time 02/02/2005.   Referred to Committee on Housing.

     TO THE HONORABLE GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, AND TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE AND THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, AND TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES, IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED, AND THE SECRETARY OF THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT:
     We, your Memorialists, the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Washington, in legislative session assembled, respectfully represent and petition as follows:
     WHEREAS, Affordable, safe, and sanitary housing is vital to the quality of life for individuals, families, and communities throughout the United States. It is also a necessary component of a healthy economy. In Washington there is an upward trend in the number of people unable to afford safe and sanitary housing and facing homelessness. Although state and federal funds have been appropriated to provide safe, sanitary, and affordable housing in our state and nationally, it remains a pervasive and persistent issue in rural, suburban, and urban communities across Washington, east of the Cascade Mountains as well as west, touching working people as well as the unemployed, and affecting families with children as well as individual adults and youth; and
     WHEREAS, The Section 8 program, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1437f, provides funds for rental subsidies for qualified low-income households in Washington and throughout the nation and is one of the best models of public-private partnerships. The goal of the Section 8 program is to make rental housing, both private and public, more affordable to low-income people. By making the rental housing more affordable, Section 8 funds benefit the states and their communities, in general, and property owners and low-income individuals and families, in particular; and
     WHEREAS, Two-thirds of the housing authorities in Washington which administer Section 8 vouchers have already had to close their Section 8 waiting lists because of the huge number of people already on the lists. Those on the lists already face a wait of eighteen months to five years for Section 8 rental assistance. This state saw a dramatic decrease from 2003 to 2004 in the number of Section 8 vouchers and the amount of Section 8 assistance available. Based on information provided by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development in January of 2005, it is projected that Washington will lose funding for an additional 2,169 Section 8 vouchers in calendar year 2005, which translates into a loss of approximately $14,802,474 in housing assistance payments to landlords. Reductions to Section 8 funding in calendar year 2005 will inevitably result in an increase in the number of people that are homeless or live in unsafe and unsanitary housing. These changes and reductions will also severely challenge private landlords who are anxious to partner with the public and rent their housing stock, but who are financially unable to shoulder the burden of a Section 8 budgeting process which does not take into account market forces;
     NOW, THEREFORE, Your Memorialists respectfully pray that the number of Section 8 vouchers and the Section 8 funding levels and formulas be maintained as provided in Public Law 108-7, Independent Agencies, VA, and HUD Appropriations for 2003 as part of the 2003 Omnibus Bill.
     BE IT RESOLVED, That copies of this Memorial be immediately transmitted to the Honorable George W. Bush, President of the United States, the Secretary of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and each member of Congress from the State of Washington.