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Protect Federal Funding: Rent Vouchers

Stable, supportive homes are the foundation for so much in life. If people can’t pay their rent and have no place to lay their heads at night, it can snowball into multiple intersecting struggles. Recovering from the experience of homelessness and housing instability is an uphill battle for families and children. It hurts us all. And when millions of people can’t pay their rent, it creates an unimaginable community crisis.

The President’s proposed budget cuts the Federal Section 8 Housing Voucher program by $26.7 billion. If this cut is realized, it is estimated that 3.8 million individuals’ and families’ lives will be thrown into chaos. Housing providers like Beacon, which depend on the program to keep residents stably housed, would be decimated.

Take Action: Email your member of Congress and tell them to protect federal funding for rent vouchers and other programs essential to supportive housing.

“Living in my Beacon home has changed my family’s narrative from surviving to thriving. My home changed the way my whole family sees themselves. Living here has been a steppingstone for the greater. My home has allowed me to focus on the positives and helps me be a more productive community member.”

                                             Amanda, Beacon Resident 

What’s at stake?

Beacon creates and operates supportive housing, which is subsidized housing for low-income households paired with on-site services. Rent vouchers are essential to Beacon’s ability to provide a home for youth, individuals, and families transitioning from homelessness into stable, long-term housing.

For example, at Vista 44, Beacon is able to provide 50 families with supportive housing because each apartment has a federal housing voucher attached to it that subsidizes the rent. Parents at Vista 44 have a chance to strengthen and stabilize their family home while their kids are able to focus on school, friends, and just being kids.

331 households at Beacon buildings rely on federal housing vouchers. These proposed cuts put youth, individuals, and families at Beacon buildings across the metro at risk of losing the stability they’ve gained. 

Currently, only one in four people who qualify for a federal voucher get one. It is unthinkable, then, that the federal government would dramatically cut the program instead of growing it to meet the need. Beacon advocates helped successfully lead the Bring it Home, Minnesota campaign, which created a historic new state voucher program. This is a WIN for more of our Minnesota neighbors! The President’s proposal is a huge step backwards. We know rent vouchers are essential to the stability of home. We need more, not less!

What happens next?

Congress must pass the federal budget, so the President’s budget is just a starting point. However, it does point in the direction many in Washington want to go and means we must be loud and persuasive in our defense of supportive housing and rent vouchers.

Just as the power of Beacon’s advocacy was able to move mountains and create the Bring it Home, MN program when many thought it impossible, we must move mountains now to defend programs like Section 8.

Send an email to your member of Congress today and tell them to protect Federal Section 8 Housing Vouchers and all the programs that make supportive housing possible. 

Please join me in lifting your voice to protect home for millions of Americans!

Sincerely,

Ben Helvick Anderson

VP of Policy & Organizing

P.S. To read about other proposed program cuts that would impact residents of Beacon buildings, click here.

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Beacon Interfaith Housing Collaborative
2610 University Avenue West Suite 100
Saint Paul, MN 55114
United States

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