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April 19, 2008

ACTION ALERT: ASK YOUR SENATOR TO BOOST SECTION 8 HOUSING!

Collins and Feingold support boosting Section 8 (your Senator could be that other guy)

Often, when we think AIDS housing, we think HOPWA and Ryan White. But because of the relative smallness of both, programs such as the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program are needed to fill in the funding holes for low-income people with HIV/AIDS.

But Section 8 hasn't kept pace with the nationwide rise in real estate prices, making truly affordable housing harder and harder to find. To help alleviate the affordable housing crisis, Sens. Russell Feingold (D-WI) and Susan Collins (R-ME) are circulating the below letter for signatures. It urges the Senate THUD Appropriations Subcommittee to increase funding for the tenant-based Section 8 program for FY 2009. The letter closes on Thursday, April 24, so contact your Senator this very moment. Currently Senators Hillary Clinton (D-NY), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), John Warner (R-VA), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Carl Levin (D-MI), Norm Coleman (R-MN) and Joseph Lieberman (D Independent-CT) have signed on.

New Yorkers, note that Sen. Chuck Schumer hasn't yet signed the letter, so his office could definitely use your call!

Here's what to do:

1. Call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 225-3121 and ask to be transferred to your Senator's office. (Don't know who your Senator is? Visit www.senate.gov to find out.)

2. Ask to speak to the staffer in your Senator's office who handles housing issues.
3. Tell the staffer about the importance of Section 8 in providing housing for people with HIV/AIDS in your community.
4. Ask the Senator to sign on to the letter. If the staffer wants more information, Amanda Beaumont is staffing the letter for Feingold and Jen Capriola is staffing the letter for Collins.
5. Please let NAHC know the results of your call by e-`mailing Latoya Thomas at latoya@nationalaidshousing.org.

Click the link below to see the text of the letter:

Read the rest: "ACTION ALERT: ASK YOUR SENATOR TO BOOST SECTION 8 HOUSING!"

The Housing Works AIDS Issues Update is reported, written and edited by Diana Scholl, David Thorpe, Phil Fox Rose, Christine Campbell, terri smith-caronia and Housing Works staff. Send your feedback, leads and story ideas to d.scholl@housingworks.org.

You can reach us by phone at 212-967-1500 x168, by fax at 212-868-4222, and by email at d.scholl@housingworks.org. Housing Works provides housing, advocacy and services to homeless people living with AIDS and HIV. Housing Works is the nation's largest community-based AIDS organization and the nation's largest minority-controlled AIDS organization.

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