The
ten years of automatic, across-the-board budget cuts otherwise known as "Sequestration" started March 1st. Due to the inability of Congress to pass
legislation on balanced deficit reduction to avoid sequestration, the President
was required by law to issue a sequestration order on March 1, 2013. This order called for the canceling of
approximately $85 billion in budgetary resources across the Federal government
for the rest of the Federal fiscal year.
Sequestration has wide spread effects on
programs that get a large portion of their funding from the
Federal government. One such program is
the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) Program. For the past 5 years, HCV, formerly known as the Section 8 Housing Assistance Program, has had inadequate and
declining funding. Now these limited funds will have to suffer another fiscal
blow triggered by the sequestration order.
How does this affect Glendale? On a local level, housing authorities such as the City of Glendale Housing Authority have had to scramble to offset the potentially ill effects of
this federal cost cutting method. Based
on analysis, housing assistance funding for the HCV program would be cut significantly. These cuts come at a time when the number of low-income families in need of housing
assistance has been rising substantially. Those in the affordable housing field and those who live in
federally-assisted housing are being warned by HUD to prepare accordingly as
housing authorities identify resources and methods to sustain current
participants on the program.
For more information about Glendale's housing programs, please call (818) 548-3936.
