U.S. Senator Russ Feingold
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Fact Sheet - Affordable Housing Expansion and Public Safety Act

November 16, 2006

U.S. Senator Russ Feingold has introduced the Affordable Housing Expansion and Public Safety Act, a bill that would provide housing assistance to Americans facing the current severe shortage of affordable housing. The legislation builds on effective federal programs and targets resources to the nation’s most vulnerable families. It is fully paid for through offsets, making funding available right away and allowing the programs to take effect immediately. Feingold’s legislation contains four provisions:

  • Authorization of new Section 8 vouchers. This legislation authorizes 100,000 new (incremental) Section 8 vouchers, with funding authorized at $8.4 billion over 10 years. The Section 8 Housing Voucher Choice program provides rental subsidies to low income families to assist these families in affording privately owned apartments. Currently, only 1 in 4 eligible families receives federal rental assistance, including Section 8 assistance. Many cities have Section 8 waiting lists that contain thousands of people, or are closed to new applicants.
  • Targeted expansion of HOME for extremely low income families. Senator Feingold’s bill authorizes $400 million in new funding for the HOME Investments Partnerships Program (HOME). It authorizes 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 funding authorized is in addition to the annual amounts that Congress appropriates for HOME and will provide an incentive to local communities to dedicate more resources to the most vulnerable families and children in their communities. The funds will be distributed and administered under current HOME guidelines.
  • Public and Assisted Housing Crime and Drug Elimination Program. The bill would reauthorize the Public and Assisted Housing Crime and Drug Elimination Program, with funding authorized at $200 million per year for five years. It would also help make the grants more effective by ensuring that grantees receive information about what types of activities work best to combat crime, and providing resources for rigorous scientific evaluation of crime fighting strategies in public housing environments.
  • Sense of the Senate. Contains a Sense of the Senate provision calling for the creation of a National Affordable Housing Trust Fund. Such a trust fund would provide a dedicated source of funding for the purpose of supplying 1,500,000 additional affordable housing units over the next ten years.

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.