NLIHC Pushes Housing in Second Stimulus

The National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) sent a letter to each House and Senate member outlining housing requests for a second stimulus package. The Congress will meet in a lame duck session set to begin on November 17. House and Senate leaders remain optimistic about their ability to pass a second economic stimulus bill.

NLIHC is requesting:

• $200 million for relocation and temporary housing assistance for tenants who live in homes that are foreclosed upon.
• Protections for tenants in properties subject to foreclosure, including the requirement that renters be provided with at least 90 days' notice before eviction.
• $5 billion for public housing capital funds to rehabilitate public housing, $1 billion of which could be distributed by formula grant to all 3,500 public housing agencies, and the balance of which could be quickly distributed by a competitive grant process.
• $110 million in disaster-related Community Development Block Grant funding for Alabama's post-Katrina housing needs, which have been repeatedly neglected by Congress (see article elsewhere in Memo).
• An end to HUD's authority to waive income targeting requirements for all Katrina/Rita CDBG funds.
• Congressional action to address the estimated $3 billion to $4 billion gap in affordable housing production resources caused by the disappearance of the market for low income housing tax credits.

In an October 29 hearing of the House Committee on Ways and Means, Trenton, NJ, Mayor Douglas Palmer, representing the U.S. Conference of Mayors, requested $2.5 billion for public housing capital funds, citing a 2007 CLPHA study that found that every dollar of public housing capital expenditure produces an average of $2.12 in economic return. The Mayors are also asking for $10 billion in Community Development Block Grant funds for infrastructure projects.

Also on October 29, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities released a memo calling for "as much as $5 billion" in public housing capital funds in a large economic stimulus package that has an infrastructure component.

View NLIHC's letters to the House and Senate at www.nlihc.org. The testimony of the Mayors is at http://waysandmeans.house.gov/media/pdf/110/palmer.pdf