Greetings, all. Those of you who were at this morning's Poverty Roundtable meeting know that I promised to send you information about a federal legislative initiative regarding affordable housing. This info is pasted below. Please consider contacting Rep. Gutknecht about this bill. Since a similar one will be introduced soon in the Senate (if it hasn't already) please also consider contacting Sens. Coleman and Dayton about this issue. Encourage these guys to be co-sponsors -- we need their support and they need to know that this issue is important to us.
Thanks! Suzanne Belongia ******************************** National Housing Trust Fund Legislation Introduced in House of Representatives A bill to create a National Housing Trust Fund (NHTF) has been introduced in the House of Representatives by Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Robert Simmons (R-CT), and Barbara Lee (D-CA). The bill, which has attracted 179 House cosponsors, would establish the NHTF as a dedicated source of funding for the purpose of producing, preserving, and rehabilitating 1,500,000 units of affordable housing over the next decade. According to the legislative proposal, excess revenues from Ginnie Mae and the Federal Housing Administration’s mortgage insurance fund would be deposited into the NHTF. Grants to states and local jurisdictions would be made from the fund by formula, taking into account the need for affordable housing in each jurisdiction. The legislation would ensure that spending from the fund would target families with very low incomes: 75 percent of the allocated funds must be spent on housing for families with incomes less than 30 percent of median family income, or that are living on a minimum wage salary. It is expected that a similar bill will be introduced soon in the Senate.
