By Brian Peters, Housing Policy Advocate
This week, the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations will be working on how to use the money for the Fiscal Year 2013. It’s important that they include enough money to fully fund housing programs. Housing is important for people with disabilities because so many of us are unemployed or underemployed. This means that people with disabilities, generally, have little income. Many are what is called “Extremely Low Income.” Many cannot afford market-rate housing and must rely on subsidized housing.
It’s important for you to call your Representative and Senators and ask them to contact the Appropriations Committee Chairs to include more money for Transportation & Housing and Urban Development (THUD). Transportation and Housing programs are in the same pot of money, so adding more money to this pot will mean more money for affordable housing, community development, and transportation in communities. If you would like to find out more information, the National Low Income Housing Coalition has a budget page on its website.
You can call the Capitol Switchboard at 1-877-210-5351 V/Relay. Wisconsin Residents, your Senators are Herbert Kohl and Ron Johnson. If you do not know who your Representative is, you can look it up here.
