Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. CLEAVER. Mr. Chairman, I came to Congress, and because of my own experiences, I only had one ambition other than being a Member of Congress, and it was to take leadership in the Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance because, experientially, I thought I had experiences that might help. And secondly, having served as mayor, we dealt a lot with housing in Missouri's largest city. I had this opportunity. And I want to thank Ms. Waters for the opportunity to be the lead Democrat on the Housing and Insurance Subcommittee.

I think it was fortunate, maybe even fortuitous, that two Missourians ended up working together, and we were able to, I think, do some things that probably might not have been done otherwise because I think we both have a spirit of working together, and it ended up in a good product. But that wouldn't have taken place without the chairman and the ranking member.

I lived in 404-B Bailey public housing in Wichita Falls, Texas. I went by on Christmas, and I just parked there for a long time and looked at the kids running around playing, thinking I used to do that on that same little piece of dirt that we called a yard. I wondered about the kids who were in that unit. Will they eventually have the opportunities that I was blessed to have? Or would they suffer the fate of many others with whom I grew up?

I thought in part we might be able to do some things here that will help the little boy I saw running around playing in front of the unit I once lived in with my mother, father, and three sisters. I think we have done this. These are probably the most sweeping changes in HUD regulations in a quarter of a century, perhaps ever; and what we have done is we have remodeled, or refashioned, or recast, or redesigned many of the programs impacting HUD.

I do not disagree with Chairman Hensarling that we do have a great deal of redundancy in programs that we run with HUD and USDA. I do think at some point there is a need for us to get things molded a little bit better, but that is not going to take place I don't think any time soon.

I support H.R. 3700 because I had the opportunity to understand what these changes mean. I also need to say before I go any further that I don't believe that compromise means capitulation. In fact, I don't think democracy can work without comity and compromise. I think they are inseparable parts of democracy. So there are parts of this bill that I am not as thrilled with, as other parts, but that is what happens in a democracy.

Again, I cherish the opportunity to work with people who are willing to move and shake and move and shake and shake and move to get something to the floor.

The bill will streamline the inspection and income review process for families living in section 8 units. We are making, in this legislation, some very badly needed changes to the project-based voucher program by allowing a public housing authority, PHA, to project-base up to 20 percent of its authorized voucher allocation, rather than 20 percent of the voucher funding that we give. And then we give PHAs more flexibility with their funds by allowing them to transfer up to 20 percent of their capital funds to the operating fund.

Mr. Chairman, what this allows is for people who are on the ground, working with people, understanding where they need to have funds, the opportunity to move those funds around without violating any of the HUD regulations.

It helps our foster children by expanding eligibility for the Family Unification Program from the current limit of 21 years of age to 24 years of age, and it increases the length of stay from 18 months to a maximum of 36 months. It also--and I think this is important--expands the eligibility of individuals who will leave foster care within 90 days.

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