Affirmative Options Coalition 3-9-2000
Minnesota NOW is a member of the Affirmative Options Coalition which is a statewide coalition of organizations and individuals advocating and organizing a comprehensive approach to welfare reform and economic security. If you have been a MN NOW member for awhile, you know that this has been one of our core issues that we continue to work hard on.
Save the TANF Proposal for Affordable Housing!
PROBLEM IN THE HOUSE!
Governor Ventura's proposal to spend $83
million of the state's TANF reserve on affordable housing is running into a roadblock in
the Minnesota House. House leadership has chosen not to free up the TANF money necessary
for the House Jobs and Economic Committee to make investments in affordable housing
development, as proposed by Governor Ventura.
This is a remarkably short-sighted decision. There is an affordable housing crisis of
dramatic proportions in Minnesota. The Governor's proposal would allow affordable housing
to be developed for 4,000 families on the Minnesota Family Investment Program (MFIP) and
those who have worked their way off. This is one of the best ways that the state's ample
TANF reserve can be used: to support families as they work their way out of poverty.
The Senate is supportive of the proposal. Only the House stands in the way of an
unprecedented initiative that will help working poor families and strengthen the
anti-poverty impact of welfare reform.
Why is Affordable Housing So Important
for Welfare Reform?
Welfare reform in Minnesota will not work without more affordable housing. There is
perhaps no group for whom the state's affordable housing crisis is more acute than
families participating in MFIP. These families are expected to work their way off MFIP and
attain self-sufficiency within 60 months. Yet it is extraordinarily difficult to achieve
the stable employment necessary to do so without stable housing. And housing is not
stable if it is unaffordable.
To illustrate how unaffordable housing has become for MFIP families, it's useful to examine what percentage of its income a typical MFIP family pays on rent. (The majority of MFIP families live in unsubsidized market-rate housing.) In October of 1999 over 13,000 MFIP recipients were working, according to the Department of Human Services. Their average monthly earnings were $747. At this level of earnings an average-sized MFIP family of three would receive an MFIP cash grant of $142, for a total monthly income of $879.
The "fair market" rent for a
two-bedroom apartment in the metro area is $684. A typical working MFIP family, then,
would pay 78% of their total income on rent. The federal standard for affordable housing
is no more than 30% of income paid on rent. These figures suggest that most MFIP
participants in market-rate housing are living in housing so unaffordable that it leaves
barely enough money left over to meet the basic needs of their families, let alone hold
down a job.
What Does the Evidence Tell Us?
Numerous studies demonstrate that families living in affordable housing are much more
likely to make a successful transition from welfare to work. For example, a study of the
MFIP pilot program (by the highly regarded Manpower Development Research Corporation)
found that in Minnesota:
* Most of the gains in employment and earnings for MFIP pilot participants were
concentrated among residents of public or subsidized housing.
* Among MFIP pilot participants in urban counties, those living in public or subsidized
housing were more than twice as likely to gain employment, and earned on average 40% more,
than participants who did not live in public or subsidized housing.
These are dramatic numbers that prove the pay-off of connecting welfare reform with
affordable housing. Affordable housing = stable employment. It is a simple
equation and a fundamental one.
There is still time for the House to change course. House legislators need to hear from supporters of affordable housing now! Call your own representative (House info: 651-296-2146) and at least one of and the key legislative leaders listed below.
MESSAGE:
Welfare reform won't work without more affordable housing. Provide TANF $ for
housing!
Speaker of the House Steve Sviggum (R-Kenyon)
651-296-2273
House Majority Leader Tim Pawlenty (R-Eagan) 651-296-4128
Representative Dave Bishop (R-Rochester) 651-296-0573
Representative Ron Abrams (R-Minnetonka) 651-296-9934
If you would like
more information, please contact MN NOW
at 651-222-1605
or contact Jason Walsh @ Affirmative Options @ 612-642-1904 or 1-800-289-1904
Thank you for your support and action!
© 2000 Minnesota NOW