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.
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