From the National Low Income Housing Coalition (http://www.nlihc.org):
Congressional leaders are working to advance a comprehensive infrastructure and economic recovery package that must include significant investments in affordable housing for America’s lowest-income and most marginalized renters. Key decisions about the package – including how much to invest in affordable housing – are being made right now!
We need your help to ensure that any infrastructure and economic recovery package includes the HoUSed campaign’s top priorities: expanding rental assistance to every eligible household, providing at least $70 billion to repair and preserve public housing, and investing at least $45 billion in the national Housing Trust Fund.
We also need your help to build congressional support for two major #HoUSed campaign bills – “Housing is Infrastructure Act” (H.R. 4497) and the “Ending Homelessness Act” (H.R. 4496). Together, these bills from House Financial Services Committee Chair Maxine Waters (D-CA) would ensure everyone has a safe, decent, affordable, and accessible place to call home and should be included in the spending bill.
Background
Now is the time to ensure that any infrastructure and economic recovery package includes the highest allocation possible for housing investments for America’s lowest-income and most marginalized households.
Congressional leaders are expected to release in the coming days a budget resolution outlining the topline spending amounts for an infrastructure package and economic recovery package, as well as allocations for housing investments. Once the budget resolution is approved by Congress, each committee – including the Senate Banking Committee and House Financial Services Committee – will draft legislation to divvy up its allocation among various programs.
House Financial Services Committee Chair Maxine Waters (D-CA) has introduced two major bills to advance the #HoUSed campaign’s policy agenda – through the infrastructure and economic recovery package and beyond.
Chair Waters’s “Housing is Infrastructure Act” would provide $600 billion in housing investments in any infrastructure package. The bill provides robust funding for HoUSed campaign’s top priorities, including $200 billion for rental assistance, $75 billion to repair and preserve public housing, and $45 billion to build homes affordable to people with the lowest incomes through the national Housing Trust Fund.Chair Waters’s “Ending Homelessness Act” would create a universal rental assistance program – a key pillar of the #HoUSed campaign’s legislative agenda. Funding for rental assistance would be mandatory and phased in over ten years to ensure every eligible household receives a housing voucher. If enacted, the bill would help ensure everyone has a safe, decent, affordable, and accessible place to call home.
Take Action
It is critical that Congress hears from you!
Contact your senators and representatives and demand that any infrastructure and economic recovery package include the HoUSed campaign’s top priorities: a major expansion of rental assistance to every eligible household, at least $70 billion to repair and preserve public housing, and at least $45 billion for the national Housing Trust Fund to build homes for those most in need.
Urge your members of Congress to cosponsor Chair Waters’s “Housing is Infrastructure Act” (H.R. 4497) and “Ending Homelessness Act” (H.R. 4496). Together these bills would help ensure everyone has a safe, decent, affordable, and accessible place to call home.
Find contact information for your members of Congress:
- Senator Robert Casey: http://casey.senate.gov
- Senator Pat Toomey: http://toomey.senate.gov
- Your Representative: http://www.house.gov
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