FEINGOLD INTRODUCES AFFORDABLE HOUSING BILL
Legislation would provide vital housing and crime-fighting assistance
to communities nationwide
January 30, 2007
Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Russ Feingold has reintroduced
The Affordable Housing Expansion and Public Safety Act to help increase
affordable housing opportunities for low income Americans. In order
to meet the housing needs of more of these families nationwide, the
legislation would authorize funding for 100,000 new Section 8 vouchers
and create new funding for extremely low income families within the
existing HOME Investments Partnerships Program. The HOME program provides
formula grants to state and local jurisdictions to produce, rehabilitate,
and preserve affordable housing for low income families, and this bill
would target the additional funding to families most in need. Feingold’s
legislation also calls for the reauthorization of 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 in Wisconsin and across our country are facing
a housing affordability crisis,” Feingold said. “This
is an issue I have been hearing about from Wisconsinites, so I have
taken this step forward to help combat the housing crisis and provide
our cities and towns with the tools necessary to 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 FY2008 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.
· Call on Congress to create 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 and expanding these effective programs, we
are making a sound investment in the future of our communities, both
in Wisconsin and across the country,” Feingold said.
Feingold’s bill is supported by the National Low Income Housing
Coalition; Wisconsin Partnership for Housing Development, Inc.; the
Interfaith Hospitality Network of Madison; the Council of Large Public
Housing Authorities; the City of Madison; Metropolitan Milwaukee Fair
Housing Council; Dane County Homeless Services Consortium; City of Milwaukee
Housing Authority; Wisconsin Council of Independent Living Centers (WCILC);
National Council on Independent Living (NCIL); and the Wisconsin Community
Action Program Association.
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