Comment Submitted by Jo Ann Wright, Anoka County Community Action Program

We are a non profit managing more than 300 units of affordable housing in Anoka County Minnesota. Our costs are high and rising because of the climate in this state, both weather and regulatory. We are trying to recover from a period of high vacancy resulting from the economic downtown when low income individuals doubled up or returned to family homes. Now we are faced with the potential for reduced rents. Approximately a third of our inventory is newly built townhomes, about 1/2 of which are two bedroom units. The rents are set so low on those units that we cannot meet our expenses. Reducing the FMR's, and I assume by association the "low HOME rents" will exacerbate the problem. Additionally, the individuals served by these two programs tend to be our most difficult group of renters, both administratively and physically with unpaid rents, property damage, and antisocial behaviors. I believe that by lowering the rent limits you will drive the private landlords to refuse Section 8.