|
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 26th, 2006 CONTACTS: Grace Ross Ron Francis == BEGIN STATEMENT == Green-Rainbow Party blasts Governor for $2 million housing subsidy cut, demands Democratic legislature pass $10 million increase"The governor's proposed 2 million dollar cut in the state housing subsidy program represents another typical example of financial mismanagement by our Republican administration and a long-term failure by the Democratic-run legislature," Green-Rainbow Party ex-co-chair, Grace Ross, said Thursday. Governor Mitt Romney revealed his fiscal year 2006 budget proposal Wednesday, which will go on before the legislature for consideration. In his proposal, Romney included a 2 million dollar cut to the state housing subsidy program. “Most of us, the people in the Commonwealth, know affordable housing is in crisis, and our government isn’t willing to spend a small amount to solve the problem and will instead spend a large amount to perpetuate it,” continued Ross. Wednesday also saw the State of the State of Women and Children in the Commonwealth presentation, where one mother reported that for her and her child’s 19-month stay in a public shelter, it is currently costing the state $100 per night. Green-Rainbow Party Membership Director, and longtime anti-poverty activist, Lisa Richards, explained the importance of affordable housing, "As my family has struggled with homelessness, we know as all families do, that housing is a fundamental right. I know from personal experience, having been experienced homelessness as a family twice (once due to a fire, and once due to loss of income), shelters are a band-aid for a huge problem where empty houses, schools, and buildings that are available today could be made into affordable housing for all. We the membership of the Green-Rainbow Party demand that our legislators and Governor spend our tax money wisely by supplying real affordable housing in this, the richest country in the world, in accordance with international human rights treaties.” Housing subsidies allows the Commonwealth's most at-risk residents to fulfill a basic human right, to have a home, helping residents to worry less about where they are going to sleep that night, and more about where they can find a decent income to rebuild their lives. Unfortunately, poverty-stricken homeless families commonly resort to publicly-funded shelters, which although is better than life on the street, does not have to be the case, as Green-Rainbow Party co-chair, Ron Francis, explains: "At $100 per night, it costs the state $36,500 per year to host a family in a shelter, where a housing subsidy that provides a less distressful environment, would only cost up to $6,000 per year! This kind of budgetary squandering is morally and fiscally deplorable. As the Green-Rainbow Party is one of the key initiators of the new movement to abolish poverty, we join with other housing advocacy groups and partners demanding that not only the Romney-Healy administration rescind the proposed cuts, but also that the Democratic-controlled legislature pass funding to increase the subsidies by $10 million, moving towards affordable housing for all residents of Massachusetts.” (END) |
|||||||||||||||