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Representatives have the chance to sign onto a House sign-on letter being circulated by Representatives Gwen Moore (D-WI) and Al Green (D-TX), which calls for providing the following in fiscal year (FY) 2011:
- $2.2 billion for HUD's McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Grants;
- 10,000 HUD-VA Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) vouchers; and
- 10,000 Housing and Services for Homeless Persons Demonstration vouchers.
To show congressional leaders that there is HUGE support in Congress and among constituents for increasing funding for these programs, we need to ensure that this letter has a long list of signatories when it is presented to House and Senate leaders early next week. So far, only 14 Representatives have joined the letter.
The deadline for Representatives to sign onto the letter is close of business on Monday, March 14.
What You Can Do
- Find out if your Representative has already joined the Moore/Green Letter. If so, call and thank him/her! If not, see if he/she signed onto the original McKinney sign-on letter last Spring, which called for $2.4 billion in FY 2011.
- Call your Representatives' offices TODAY and TOMORROW, if they haven't already joined the Moore/Green letter. Ask to speak to the person who handles housing issues. Office phone numbers can be found by dialing the congressional switchboard at 202-224-3121.
- Ask them to sign onto the Moore/Green Sign-On Letter by Monday. If they signed the letter last spring asking for $2.4 billion, remind them that they supported an even higher funding amount. They can contact Andrew Stevens in Rep. Moore's office at Andrew.Stevens@mail.house.gov to join the new letter.
- If they need to consult with their boss first, find out when you can follow up on your request, and then let us know which office(s) you spoke with by contacting Kate Seif at cseif@naeh.org.
More Information
Yesterday, the Senate officially voted on both the House FY 2011 proposal, HR 1, and a proposal of its own. As expected, both proposals failed to get enough votes to pass. Now, House, Senate, and Administration negotiators are meeting to try to reach a compromise on FY 2011 funding. If they cannot reach a deal by next Friday, March 18 (when the current stopgap funding measure expires), Congress will have to pass another temporary stopgap measure, or risk a government shutdown.
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