FEINGOLD TO INTRODUCE AFFORDABLE HOUSING BILL
Initiative is Third in a Series of Proposals Feingold Will Introduce
This Year Addressing Domestic Issues Raised by Wisconsinites
November 16, 2006
Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Russ Feingold will introduce major
legislation today to increase affordable housing for low-income Americans.
The Affordable Housing Expansion and Public Safety Act would authorize
the funding of 100,000 new Section 8 vouchers in order to meet the housing
needs of low income families nationwide. The bill would also authorize
new funding for the HOME Investments Partnerships Program to provide
formula grants to state and local jurisdictions to produce, rehabilitate,
and preserve affordable housing for extremely low income people. Feingold’s
legislation would also reauthorize the Public and Assisted Housing Crime
and Drug Elimination Program, a Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
program that provides grants to combat violent and drug-related crime
in public and other federally assisted low-income housing.
“Many communities across our country are facing a housing affordability
crisis,” Feingold said. “This is an issue I have been hearing
about from Wisconsinites, and my bill is a step toward combating the
housing crisis and helping our cities and towns build, supply, and preserve
affordable housing.”
Feingold’s Affordable Housing Expansion and Public Safety Act
would:
Authorize funding for 100,000 incremental Section 8 vouchers for FY2007
and their subsequent renewal and administrative fees.
Authorize new funding under the HOME Program to provide new home production,
and rehabilitation or preservation of existing housing to some of our
most vulnerable families. This new funding will offer local communities
flexibility to address particular housing needs in their communities.
Reauthorize the Public and Assisted Housing Crime and Drug Elimination
Program. This important HUD program has gone unfunded for several years.
It provides public housing authorities and other federally assisted
low-income housing entities with the resources to hire public safety
officers, make physical security improvements, sponsor crime prevention
programs, and take other steps to combat violent and drug-related crime.
Encourage the creation of a National Affordable Housing Trust Fund.
More than 300 housing trust funds have been created by cities and states
throughout the country. A national affordable housing trust fund would
provide a dedicated source of funding for the purpose of supplying 1,500,000
additional affordable housing units over the next decade.
“By revitalizing these effective programs, we are making a sound
investment in the future of our communities, both in Wisconsin and across
the country,” Feingold said.
The bill is the third of four proposals Feingold is introducing this
year to address some of the domestic issues that have been raised with
him by Wisconsinites or at Wisconsin listening sessions over the years.
Previous proposals addressed health care reform and the trade deficit.
Feingold’s bill is supported by the National Low Income Housing
Coalition; the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities; Wisconsin
Partnership for Housing Development, Inc.; City of Milwaukee Housing
Authority; the Interfaith Hospitality Network of Madison; the YMCA of
Metropolitan Milwaukee Community Development Center; the Dane County
Homeless Services Consortium; the Metropolitan Milwaukee Fair Housing
Council; and the Wisconsin Community Action Program Association.
For more information read a
fact sheet on the legislation.
Read Senator Feingold's
statement introducing the bill. |
