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DRAFT <br />POLICY ASSISTANCE <br />Section 8 Housing <br />We should always advocate for the provision of funding for new voucher units for <br />both the disabled and non-disabled low-income families. In recent years, the limited <br />number of new vouchers that have been available have primarily targeted the disabled, <br />low-income population with extensive requirements for support services. A review of <br />the 2003 funding awards for the vouchers for disabled reveals that approximately 1,300 <br />vouchers were awarded nationwide in 15 states with none in North Carolina. Few new <br />vouchers are available for non-disabled families. <br />The President's FY 2005 Budget includes a proposal to convert the Section 8 Housing <br />Choice Voucher (HCV) Program from a unit-based funded program to a dollar-based <br />program, or block grant. This is being proposed under the guise of allowing greater <br />program flexibility that would result in program savings. This program is known as the <br />Flexible Voucher (FV) Program. The proposed flexibility would allow greater local <br />control and decision-making regarding inspections, targeting, rent setting and income <br />eligibility. However, most housing advocates agree that this type program would actually <br />result in fewer families being served since funding would be capped at a certain amount <br />each year. <br />Further, housing industry professionals estimate that funding to support the voucher <br />program would be drastically reduced - by an estimated $1.9 billion in appropriations in <br />FY 2005. And, not only would the amount of money available for housing subsidies be <br />reduced, but administrative fees would be reduced as well which could lead difficulty <br />meeting personnel costs. Therefore, we should advocate for the retention of unit- <br />based funding for housing vouchers for our current allocation as well as any new <br />vouchers available in next year's budget. We should not support the proposed <br />Flexible Housing Voucher Program. <br />2. EFNEP(Breast-feeding Program <br />Early in December 2003, it was announced that funding for the North Carolina In-Home <br />Breastfeeding Support Program (IHBSP) had been denied by Food and Nutrition Service <br />(FNS) in Atlanta, ending the program. The In-Home Breastfeeding Support Program <br />started as a pilot program in Wake County through other funding sources in 1991, and <br />was so successful in assisting limited resource women with breastfeeding that many <br />counties added it as quickly as they could arrange funding sources. The Breastfeeding <br />Support program was started in Orange County in September, 2000 when funding was <br />received from Food and Nutrition Services as part of a statewide proposal The Orange <br />County Commissioners have provided emergency funding from human services safety <br />net dollars through the end of the fiscal year in order to continue to meet the need of the <br />clients in Orange County.