This is a commemorative chart to hang in your office or home to glorify the victories that your elected officials have won after a long fought battle with the budget. In addition, there is an easy to read look at what this all means. These were compiled from the report, "The Unbalanced Budget: The Impact of the Congressional Budget on Homelessness"
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Changes Ahead
1. Repeal of AFDC
2 Welfare Cut by $80 Billion over 7 years
3 Work required to receive welfare
4 Repeal of JOBS program
5 Five year time limit on welfare
6. Supplemental Security Income and Medicaid Benefits denied to those with chemical addiction
**7.$30 Billion cut from Earned Income Tax Credit over 7 years.
8 No increase in minimum wage
9. The cancellation of the Low Income Housing Tax Credit in 1997
10. No increase in issuance of Section 8 certificates
11. Elimination of federal preference for public and assisted housing
12. Impose a minimum rent to Section 8 and public housing residents
13. Reduction of the Fair Market Rent to 40th Percentile
**14. $163 billion cut from Medicaid over 7 years
**15. Welfare recipients no longer guaranteed Medicaid
**16. Adult Children of nursing home residents with above average incomes will not be protected from nursing homes seeking payments for care or medical treatment on parents
**17. States may impose premiums or deductibles upon Medicaid beneficiaries (except pregnant women)
18. As a group the McKinney funds will be cut by 27 %
19. A 27% decrease from 1995 funding for Emergency Shelter Grants
20. A 27% decrease in Supportive Housing
21. A 27 % decrease in funds to rehabilitate Single Room Occupancy Units
22. A 27 % decrease in Shelter Plus Care funds.
23. Health care programs for the Homeless unchanged from Fiscal Year 1995
24. Elimination of the ACCESS program
25. A 20% decrease from 1995 funding level for Education for Homeless Children and Youth.
26. Adult Education for the Homeless eliminated.
** President Bill Clinton has stated publicly that he is opposed to these changes, and therefore they may have to be compromised out of the budget reconciliation bill.
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What it all Means
1. Creation of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program which is not a federal entitlement but a state program
The State Block Grant will not expand with economic downturns. When the money runs out there is no more.
2. States must decide who to cut from the program
3 Families will be cut from the programs or be forced into extremely low wage jobs.
4 Less job training and education. With the cut, the child care aspect of the JOBS program is eliminated.
5 Families dropped from the public dole will have only food stamps.
6. Limited treatment options will be harder to find
7 Effectively raising taxes on the poor
8. The minimum wage has not kept pace with inflation and keeps families in poverty
9. 100,000 Affordable housing units a year may not be built as anticipated.
10. Longer waiting lists for Section 8 housing, and more people on the waiting list. The wait is over one year in Cleveland.
11. Shelters will be turning more people away with a longer waiting list for assisted housing.
12. The poorest families will choose to pay rent or eat.
13. Fewer units available to Section 8 tenants and fewer landlords will find it attractive to rent to Section 8 assisted households.
14. Ohio will have to make up the difference or restrict those in the program. Cuts to services or cutting out whole classes of people.
15. Each state will decide.
16. Middle class families could face financial hardship with medical bills of their parents
17. Even a minor illnesses could be a drain on those that must rely on Medicaid.
18. The programs to assist the homeless will decrease or shelter space will be harder to find
19. 27% decrease in shelter beds or renovation or conversion of buildings for shelters
20. 27 % decrease in transitional housing and supportive services
21. 27% decrease in SRO rehab of buildings, rental assistance, and financing. Cleveland has very few SRO units left for single men to rent.
22. 27% decrease in rental assistance and services to the homeless with disabilities including mental illness, AIDS, chemical addiction.
23. Demand for health care will increase because of the Medicaid changes
24. Reduction in services available to severely mentally ill homeless people
25. Programs to ensure that all homeless children and youth have equal access to free and appropriate education jeopardized
26. Adult literacy programs that improve basic and life skills, GED programs, and employment training will fall on state and localities to fund.
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Copyright NEOCH and the Homeless Grapevine published January – February 1996 Issue 13
