Commissioner Eileen Higgins requests report on government shutdown’s impact on housing programs

MIAMI-DADE – The Miami-Dade County Commission on Jan. 23 passed a resolution sponsored by Commissioner Eileen Higgins instructing the mayor’s administration to provide a report on the effects of the ongoing partial federal government shutdown on the federal housing programs administered by Miami-Dade Public Housing and Community Development Department and any steps being taken to limit the shutdown’s impact federal housing programs participants in Miami-Dade County.

The federal government has been in a partial shutdown since Dec. 22 – the longest shutdown in history – due to an impasse over border wall funding between President Trump and Congress. The shutdown is affecting approximately 800,000 employees, who have either been furloughed or are working without pay, causing some of them to drain their savings to pay rent, mortgage payments, utility bills, credit card balances, health insurance premiums and other expenses.

“We want to make sure that people in public housing, who are among our most vulnerable residents, don’t get evicted due to a lapse in appropriations for federal housing assistance as a result of a prolonged government shutdown,” Commissioner Higgins said.