A new Foreclosure Relief Unit was announced in the Governor’s State of the State address. This will be housed in the Department of Financial Services.  It is expected  that the existing State partnership with trained non profits providing counseling and mortgage foreclosure mitigation services will continue but details have not yet been provided.

The New-York-State-Legislative-Session-Calendar has been released. Use this as a guide to plan your visits to your legislators at home and in Albany every month.  If you haven’t touched based with them about the State Housing Awards (either good news or bad) please remember to do so soon.  Please don’t wait until the Advocates Legislative Conference, March 5-6th in Albany to start talking about the importance of housing in rural NY. By the time we get there, we hope to see our Housing Programs Produce Jobs!_flyer in every legislators office!

Now that housing announcements have finally been made, it’s a great time to let your legislators know about the economic impact this will have on your community. Please get the message out!  See this article in the local Binghamton paper for a great response!

Legislators return to Albany this week and the Governor is considering a tax increase on the “rich”. The Governor is promising a State budget with a modest 2% growth in spending, yet a 4% increase in health care and education.  Meanwhile, all expect that  housing award announcements will finally be made the end of this week.  Please speak out – funded or not- these delays have had their impact!

NYS Rural Advocates held their annual meeting in Cooperstown, NY on November 9 and 10.  During that meeting it was acknowledged that the preservation program is all about JOBS. The non profits funded are community economic and housing professionals, responding to community needs and are accountable to the community where they work.  The funding supports housing and community building which is the message of the Governor’s Economic Regional Councils across the State.  Full funding for the  Preservation Program is essential as are flexible housing and community programs that are size and scale appropriate to save small communities.

Rural Advocates welcome new board members Stephanie Lane and Jerry Willard.

The FY 2012 minibus conference report has been issued and now ready for the vote with cuts to housing and a continuing resolution. This includes both RD programs and HUD housing programs.

Last week the House held hearings on HOME program fraud. Along with that the Washington Post is reporting widespread problems of reporting and accounting.

Coburn Amendment to Cut Rural Development

When the Senate returns from recess next week, it will resume consideration of H.R. 2112, the FY 2012 Agriculture Appropriations Bill. Among the amendments under consideration is No. 800, sponsored by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), which proposes a $1 billion reduction in rural development programs. This is about a 40% cut from the levels recommended in the Senate’s bill.

The National Rural Housing Coalition has drafted a letter to send to the Senate urging members to vote “NO” on the Coburn amendment. If you wish to sign on please follow this link

http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5172/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=8587

and fill out the form below the letter. The closing date for signatures is Friday, October 28

Less money for HOME,  CDBG, Public Housing

FY 2012 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill Subcommittee Mark  September 20, 2011

Providing housing and services to our Nation’s most vulnerable Section 8 Tenant-based rental assistance: $18.9 billion for housing choice vouchers. This level of funding is $501 million above the fiscal year 2011 enacted level. This funding is critical to ensuring that our Nation’s low-income families, especially those hit hard by the recession, can maintain safe, affordable housing. It includes: . $17.14 billion for the renewal of current housing choice vouchers and $1.4 billion for program administration; . $75 million for 11,000 new HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) vouchers for homeless veterans; . $60 million for the Family Self-Sufficiency program; and . $5 million to support a homeless demonstration program.

Public Housing: $1.9 billion for the public housing capital fund, a decrease of $165 million below the fiscal year 2011 enacted level. This funding will help preserve and improve public housing. The bill also includes $4 billion for the public housing operating fund, which is $655 million below the fiscal year 2011 enacted level. The language allows the Secretary to offset PHA’s excess reserves, but limits the allowable offset to $750 million. Project-based rental assistance: $9.4 billion for the project-based section 8 program, including over $9.1 billion for the renewal of all expiring project-based contracts for a full 12 months. This level of funding is $161 million above the fiscal year 2011 enacted level.

Homeless Assistance grants: $1.9 billion for homeless assistance grants. This level of funding is equal to the fiscal year 2011 enacted level. In response to the increase in family homelessness, the bill includes $286 million for the Emergency Solutions Grant program to prevent families from becoming homeless, or rapidly re-house those that are homeless.

Native American housing block grants: $650 million for Native American housing block grants. This level of funding will support the housing and community development needs of Native Americans.

Supporting our communities and addressing the foreclosure crisis Community Development Block Grants (CDBG): $2.85 billion is provided for CDBG grant funding for States and communities across the Nation. This is $485 million below the fiscal year 2011 enacted level. This funding will assist states and communities that are still struggling as the economy recovers with their continued efforts to invest in and support the needs of low- income communities.

HOME Investment Partnership: $1 billion for the HOME Investment Partnership program, which is $607 less than the fiscal year 2011 enacted level. This funding supports the creation and rehabilitation of low-income housing across the country. The bill also includes reforms to ensure that funds are used in a timely fashion for worthy projects.

Housing Counseling: A total of $125 million for housing counseling efforts. This includes $60 million for HUD’s housing counseling activities, including Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) counseling and pre-purchase counseling. In addition, $65 million is included to continue the National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling program that began in fiscal year 2008.

Investing in transportation infrastructure Funding for Significant Transportation Projects (“TIGER” program): $550 million for grants to support significant transportation projects in a wide variety of modes, including highways and bridges, public transportation, passenger and freight railroads, and port infrastructure. The bill requires the Secretary to allocate no less than $120 million for projects in rural communities. The funding level included in the bill is $23 million higher than the fiscal year 2011 enacted level.

Highway Investments: $41.1 billion for the Federal-aid Highway program to support essential investments in roads and bridges in every State across the country. This funding level is equal to the fiscal year 2011 enacted level. The bill does not include any rescission of budgetary resources from the highway program. The appropriations act for fiscal year 2011 included $3.1 billion in rescisions of unused highway resources provided in previous years. Transit Investments: An additional $358 million above the fiscal year 2011 enacted level for the transit “New Starts” program. This funding supports projects across the Nation that will provide new or expanded public transportation services. Airport Investments: $3.5 billion for capital investments at airports across the country.

Last night I attended the regional ED forum for Allegany County and have to say it was not as bad as the process sounded. Though we were given broad strategic areas there was plenty of time to nuance these items for our area and add housing and other community revitalization efforts ( Main Street, CDFI lending, etc)  to the mix. Each region has devised different questions based on the Regional councils discussion so this may vary between regions.

Questions arose regarding the consistency with the QUAP in the new role of the regional councils in determining projects and whether the allocation throughout the state were going to be carried through by the regions, I am not an expert here so not sure if these concerns are valid. The presenters knew nothing about housing and had no response on how this would fit into economic development. My guess is this is going to be something that the Chief elected may be consulted on regarding whether they support certain housing  proposals in their area.

For those in Hydrofracking areas there was concern on local housing  costs if a few thousand workers are imported into areas and also that local workers be used first. Rumors are that most new jobs in Marcellus Shale have gone to imported workers from out of the area. There was an overall concern from the group that Erie and Niagara counties not take all the money and that the types of projects would be quite different from our area vs. Urban areas. A specific question arose about the definition of Smart growth that it conflicts with the DHCR definition. Again not sure how valid.

 

Also wanted to add that Blair, Nancy and I met with senator Young regarding abuses of Land Contracts in her district and that she is interested in sponsoring some form of consumer protection bill at a minimum requiring filing and disclosure of terms and conditions. More on this as the session comes closer.