Housing Choice Voucher Mobility Demonstration Act of 2019

Floor Speech

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Mr. CLEAVER. Mr. Speaker, this piece of legislation is particularly significant to me. I lived in public housing for 5 years. I saw what the possibilities were there. I saw people who did not make it, and I saw people who did made it.

The one thing that I found difficult to accept was the fact that if you lived in public housing, almost every rule made was designed, unintentionally, to keep you in public housing.

My father didn't tell the truth about the fact that he was cleaning up at an office building on Saturday earning some additional money and then serving at parties on the weekends. He had to pretend that that didn't happen because he was saving money trying to get our family in our own home. And it worked. He is watching C-SPAN right now, hearing his son talk about what could have happened.

The essence of this bill was passed as a part of the appropriations package that was signed into law earlier this year. It promotes housing mobility for individuals who rely on housing vouchers.

Under this bill, the Department of Housing and Urban Development would establish a demonstration program to allow interested public housing agencies to form consortia to enhance mobility and provide residents with increased opportunity to move to higher-income communities.

There is something contagious about working around only poor people. If you live in a neighborhood and all you see are people who are struggling, it is easy to come to the conclusion that that is the way life is: that you are just supposed to struggle and that you are just supposed to barely make it. If you don't see the signs of people who are making progress--people who are achieving--you might come to the conclusion that achievement is beyond one's reach.

This was demonstrated with a research project from Harvard economists Raj Chetty, Nathaniel Hendren, and Lawrence Katz which indicates that children who move to higher-opportunity neighborhoods increase their chances of success. More specifically, the study found that children who were able to use housing vouchers to move to lower-poverty areas were 32 percent more likely to attend college and earned 31 percent more a year than their counterparts in lower-income neighborhoods.

This bill removes barriers by providing families with the tools to navigate a move from one neighborhood to another. H.R. 1122 will allow more families to thrive by increasing their access to higher performing schools, employment opportunities, fresh and affordably priced foods, and safe playgrounds.

There is something about homeownership or living in a nice neighborhood. Our family was able to move out. My father bought a house in a White neighborhood where we could not live and had it moved at night from the Midwestern Parkway to Gerald Street, where my father lives today. And, my goodness, I wish the world could see what transpired.

My father's yard is in contention with any yard in town for the yard of the summer. We had a water shortage in Texas--we had a drought, a serious drought 38 years ago--and my father would get up at 3 a.m. in the morning to trick the city people who would come out checking to see if anybody was violating the water ordinance by watering his lawn at 2, 3, or 4 a.m. in the morning.

While I am confessing my father broke the law, the truth of the matter is that it pleased me because we had never had a yard in my life until we were able to get out of public housing. So not only does it give the children an opportunity for a higher achievement educationally, but it also does something for the homeowner.

This bill removes barriers, and I am supportive of that.

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Mr. CLEAVER. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague, friend, and former neighbor, Sean Duffy, who worked with me on this bill. And I also thank the chair and the ranking member of the committee for their continued support.

With this, I am hopeful that we can continue working across the aisle to promote housing opportunity for all of our constituents.

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