The following is a sample letter that you can send to your Senator.  To access your Senator's email, click here.  Then copy this letter and paste it in an email.  Thank you!

Dear Senator,

[INSERT NAME OF ORGANIZATION OR INDIVIDUAL is/am] writing to urge you to oppose the Bush Administration’s proposed Fiscal Year (FY) 2007 budget for the Section 811 Supportive Housing for Persons with Disabilities Program, which would cut funding by 50 percent, from $238 million to $118 million. The proposed funding amount would significantly reduce the number of new units of permanent supportive housing from approximately 1,000 to only 150 units. These units are desperately needed for people with the most serious and long-term disabilities.

The Section 811 program is widely recognized in states and localities as a cost-effective supportive housing alternative to expensive institutional settings. Many states have relied on the Section 811 program to reduce the number of people with disabilities who remain unnecessarily in costly public mental health facilities, Medicaid funded nursing home beds, or public facilities for people with mental retardation and other developmental disabilities. A recent cost study by the Pennsylvania Center for Outcome Analysis found that people who moved into Section 811 supportive housing units required 61 percent less public financing to live in the community – about $26,000 per year instead of $67,000 spent on a control group of similar individuals that did not move into supportive housing.

I urge you to reject this budget proposal, which will severely limit one of the most important federal housing programs for people with disabilities. We must fight to maintain the Section 811 program to ensure that people with disabilities with the lowest incomes continue to have access to decent, safe, and affordable housing of their choice in the community.

Thank you very much.

Sincerely,

INSERT NAME