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April 7, 2005
Tenant groups fight Romney on vouchers
Jeremy Schwab
In 1990, 20,000 low-income households received rent subsidies
under the Massachusetts Rental Voucher Program. Following successive
budget cuts, that number has shrunk to just 4,715 households,
according to state statistics.
But the flurry of lobbying and tenant organizing taking place
this month around the MRVP program is not in reaction to yet another
funding cut.
Rather, organizers from the tenants’ rights group City Life/Vida
Urbana are mobilizing against Governor Mitt Romney’s proposal
to restructure the MRVP program.
Romney, in his proposed fiscal 2006 budget, included language
that would end subsidies after a household has been on the program
for more than three years. A five-year lifetime maximum would
also be imposed.
“The vast majority of Boston tenants can’t afford
market rents, so the whole premise that you should get a subsidy
then be able to do something better is flawed,” argued City
Life tenant organizer Steve Meacham.
Romney also is proposing that a work requirement of 20-30 hours
per week be imposed for each adult household member other than
full-time students. Adults over the age of 60 may be exempt.
A third proposed change, coupled with the three- and five-year
limits, has activists wondering whether Romney plans to phase
out the vouchers altogether.
Romney proposed to eliminate language requiring the Department
of Housing and Community Development to re-issue MRVP mobile vouchers
when they are turned in. Activists worry that this may signal
Romney’s intent not to re-issue the vouchers.
“One of the biggest concerns is that as people leave the
program the voucher would be lost permanently, and would not be
regenerated for the next family that needs assistance,”
said Roxan McKinnon, assistant coordinator of the Boston Tenant
Coalition.
A Romney spokesman referred questions for comment to Bill Hailer,
a spokesman for the Department of Housing and Community Development.
When asked why Romney’s proposal would eliminate the language
requiring that vouchers be re-issued, Hailer said he did not know.
“I don’t have an answer for that,” he said.
Hailer also said he did not know whether Romney plans to re-issue
the vouchers once they are turned in, and he did not know whether
the three- and five-year limits would apply retroactively.
“The purpose of the time limits was to encourage voucher
holders to transition out of the program as soon as they can,”
he said.
Organizers from City Life are planning a meeting Wednesday evening
at the Vietnamese American Community Center in Fields Corner for
both tenants receiving MRVP vouchers and those receiving federal
Section 8 rent vouchers.
“We think that even though one is a state and one a federal
program, we need to organize together because the priorities that
are driving those cuts are similar,” said Meacham. “We
are going to talk in the meeting about what these priorities are
and how to fight them.”
Activists opposing Romney’s proposed changes have allies
in key places in the state House of Representatives and Senate.
Both chairs of the Joint Committee on Housing are strongly opposed
to the changes.
“It is fiscally foolish,” said Sen. Brian Joyce, one
of the co-chairmen. “Those people would end up in emergency
shelters that would cost $100 per night rather than $410 per month.
The work requirement may sound good on the campaign trail and
the Republican primary in Iowa, but there is nothing in there
concerned with day care or what happens to the children involved.”
Rep. Kevin Honan, the other co-chairman, doubted the proposal
would pass.
“I think the Legislature will stand up against this idea,”
he said. “I will certainly be leading the opposition to
these changes. We have a housing crisis in Massachusetts and it
is very difficult for working-class families to find affordable
housing.”
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