CHAPA Action Alert! Contact your Legislator to Help Override Governor Baker’s Vetoes of Affordable Housing, Community Development, and Homelessness Prevention Programs in the FY2016 Budget - July 23, 2015

Last week, Governor Baker signed the FY2016 State Budget. He also issued vetoes affecting important affordable housing, community development, and homelessness prevention programs.

These vetoes include:

• $3 million in cuts to the Massachusetts Rental Voucher Program (MRVP) (7004-9024).  This cut would reduce the number of rental vouchers available to low-income households by approximately 300. Rental assistance is the most effective tool for helping households who are homeless or at risk of homelessness to afford rent and obtain housing stability.
• $650,000 in cuts to Housing Consumer Education Centers (HCECs) (7004-3036).  These HCECs are essential to connecting families at risk of homelessness to the resources they need to stay stably housed, such as HomeBASE or RAFT;
• $1.5 million in cuts to the Housing Preservation and Stabilization Trust Fund (HPSTF), which would hinder much needed flexibility for the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) to fund new initiatives, create housing, and provide resources to respond to urgent housing needs; and
• Eliminating forward funding for HomeBASE (7004-0108). Forward funding of HomeBASE would allow agencies providing this critical housing resource to more effectively serve families because agencies would no longer have to borrow money to administer the program.

For CHAPA’s letter to legislators with a full description of our override requests, please click here.

The Legislature may now take up veto overrides to restore funding and language to the final budget.  To do this, both the House and Senate must vote with a two-thirds majority to override a veto.

Please call your legislator today to ask them to override these vetoes to help everyone in the Commonwealth have a safe, decent, and affordable place to call home.  You can find your legislator’s information by clicking here and entering your address.

Thank you and for more information, please contact Rachel Heller or Eric Shupin at CHAPA, (617) 742-0820.