[ Reply ]
From: Steve Olden
email: mailto:solden@lascinti.org
link: http://
date: 10/20/0 11:13
Date: 12/21/00
Time: 12:18:54 PM
Remote Name: 207.251.188.199
We submitted the following comments.
Steve Olden Senior Attorney Legal Aid Society of Greater Cincinnati
_____________
October 19, 2000
Office of the General Counsel Rules Docket Clerk Department of Housing & Urban Development 451 Seventh Street, Room 10276 SW Washington, D.C. 20410
Via Overnight Mail
RE: Comments on Docket No. FR-4608-P-01 Determining Adjusted Income in HUD Programs Serving Persons With Disabilities: Requiring Mandatory Deductions for Certain Expenses; and Disallowance for Earned Income
Dear Rules Docket Clerk:
The Legal Aid Society of Greater Cincinnati is very active in efforts to help people with disabilities move into the work force. Attorney Andrea Zigman co-chairs the Social Security Administration's Region V Work Incentive Advisory Group. We have helped hundreds of clients with disabilities to understand and use work incentives in Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare and other public programs. We have also partnered with local Medicaid and Social Security offices to improve supports for work.
Additionally, our attorneys have worked with tenants of public and subsidized housing for decades. In the summer of 1998, we initiated a series of meetings and training sessions with staff from the Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA) to bring about full implementation of the then-existing earned income disregards for CMHA's tenants. Over the past two years, this work has continued, and has addressed the new earned income disregards made available under the Quality Housing and Work Responsibility Act of 1998. Because of the very real benefits realized by tenants eligible for the disregards, we also conducted a publicity campaign, jointly with CMHA, to inform public housing tenants of the disregards and the eligibility criteria for them. Our attorneys have also spoken to various social service agencies and at job training offices to inform people about the importance of the earned income disregards. Over the past two years, we have seen the dramatic difference the disregards make for households with newly-hired family members.
Based on our experience and knowledge, we strongly support HUD's proposed extension of the earned income disregards to persons with disabilities in households under the four additional programs identified in your proposed rule (65 Fed. Reg. 50842, et seq.). Disabled workers and their families can have much difficulty transitioning to employment, which often brings losses as well as gains for them. It is extremely important that all families gaining new employment opportunities be supported in their quest for independence.
We suggest that HUD clarify its definition of "qualified family" in Section 5.617(b) to make clear that it includes families with any disabled adult member. Also, HUD should not tie eligibility for disabled family members to receipt of assistance, benefits, or services under only TANF. Too many disabled workers will be excluded by this definition. A better, broader definition would tie eligibility to receipt of such assistance, benefits, or services from any governmental entity under any supportive program. Such a definition would be no more difficult for a housing provider to administer.
We also recommend that HUD go a step further with these income disregards for disabled workers and apply them to those assisted by Section 8 programs. The hardships faced by households with disabled family members finding new employment exist regardless of where the family lives and the housing assistance it receives.
Finally, HUD is seeking further comment in its Supplementary Information section. We recommend that HUD expand coverage of the earned income disregards to include all families served by HUD. We applaud HUD for its current proposals. However, all tenants and their families should be permitted to benefit from the disregards discussed here, just as they do from the other disregards and adjustments used to calculate rent. One of our local housing authorities (CMHA) has provided the earned income disregards to scores of tenants and, in doing so, has enabled them to stay employed and adjust at a measured pace to their new financial condition. There is no reason why all tenants served by HUD programs should not receive the same help and support as they move into the employment, often for the first time ever or in many years. We urge HUD to continue to press for expanded application of the earned income disregards.
Respectfully submitted,
Andrea Zigman
Managing Attorney
Steve Olden
Senior Attorney
AZ/Letters/Rules Docket Clerk.101900/jls