Ben Miksch, Affordable Housing Policy and Advocacy Specialist

It's Mother's Day on Sunday, and I know I have a lot to thank my mom for. My parents faced a lot of challenges when I was growing up, but I realize that I am incredibly lucky that keeping a roof over our heads wasn't one of them.

That's not the case for many moms in our state. Our friends at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities have been using Mother's Day as an opportunity to highlight the impact of sequestration cuts on housing choice vouchers. This reduction has greatly impacted mothers and families across our nation.

In Washington State, more than 20,200 mothers are able to keep their families safe and healthy in part because a Housing Choice Voucher covers part of the cost of modest private rental housing.

Unfortunately, the amount of need far outweighs the amount of assistance provided. More than 64,000 low-income mothers are in need of rental assistance, more than three times as many as are actually receiving assistance. Nationally, only about one in four families eligible for a voucher actually receives any form of federal rental assistance. We see this play out as long waiting lists for assistance, and more and more people trying to make do without the assistance they need.

This gap has only been made worse by cuts at the federal level, such as sequestration. Less funding for vouchers meant that public housing authorities had to reduce the number of total vouchers they were administering, slowing down the number of people they were taking off of those waiting lists.

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Here, 24 of Washington State's 30 public housing authorities had to reduce the number of households they were serving by the end of 2013. Overall, there are now 1,312 fewer households using vouchers in our state because of these cuts.

As bad as that is, Washington fared better than many other parts of the country. Nationwide, more than 70,000 vouchers were lost in 2013.

Congress boosted funding for this year, but that funding is estimated to only restore about 30,000 of those vouchers. The National Low Income Housing Coalition and The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities are advocating to Congress with a plan to fully reverse the sequestration cuts and to restore all of the 70,000 eliminated vouchers.

Congress’s budget discussions for 2015 are just getting under way. Now is a great time to let your legislators know how important it is that we fully reverse the sequestration cuts entirely.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has some great materials available if you’re interested in reading more about this subject.

Research on how Housing Choice Vouchers reduce hardship and provide platform for long-term gains among children.

One-pager on Public Housing Choice Voucher use in Washington State.