Emergency Housing Protections and Relief Act of 2020

Floor Speech

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Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding and for her exceptional leadership on behalf of America's working families. I especially salute her now for bringing the Emergency Housing Protections and Relief Act to the floor. It is urgently needed, and I rise in support of it because it is, as I said, an urgently needed lifeline for working families as COVID-19 exacts its devastating impact on millions of lives and livelihoods across America.

I salute Chairwoman Maxine Waters, who, as the chair of the Financial Services Committee, is a relentless, persistent, and dissatisfied force for good on behalf of America's working families, and she is especially focused on their financial security, housing being central to that.

I thank Denny Heck for his leadership on this important legislation as well.

As we know, Mr. Speaker, there had been an affordable housing crisis in America long before this pandemic which challenges the conscience of our country and now has been exacerbated by COVID-19.

Before the crisis, one-quarter of America's 44 million renters paid over half their income on rent, putting them just one financial emergency away from eviction and homelessness. For many, COVID-19 is that one emergency.

Tens of millions of Americans have lost jobs, with rental households disproportionately affected. We cannot accept a situation in which millions of families are forced to make the devastating choice between paying the rent or paying for groceries, prescriptions, and other essentials, but even before COVID that was the challenge.

That is why earlier today we brought legislation to the floor to lower the cost of prescription drugs, because it had such an impact on the financial security of families, and now helping with the rent.

Thirty percent of renters could not make rent in June, exposing them to the threat of eviction, particularly as eviction bans that Democrats secured in the CARES Act end. Evictions are devastating, dismantling financial security, and exposing children and families to situations of financial instability that harm their health and well-being.

Children who experience evictions are already vulnerable. They are more likely to live in families earning low incomes, belong to communities of color which have a disproportionate impact here, and have more special education needs than children who don't face eviction.

I say this issue carefully because when I was a girl, my father was the mayor of Baltimore and my mother as first lady had, as her mission, affordable housing. She said: How can we teach children love and respect when we don't even show them that love and respect by giving them a decent place to live?

I was so proud because when she passed away many years after that, The Baltimore Sun used that statement in her obituary. But this has always been important.

When we did our Summit on Children, talking about their health, their education, and their financial security, health leaders told us that we must include housing in that because it has such an impact on the psychological well-being of children. So think of the children when you think of this, Mr. Speaker.

Again, in May, the House passed the HEROES Act, which secured $100 billion in emergency assistance to help 44 million rental households remain stably housed, along with another $100 billion for additional housing support and homelessness prevention initiatives, all of this under the leadership of Madam Chair Maxine Waters.

Again, she has been fighting this fight for a long time, reaching down into existing law and statute to find ways to take us forward.

Yet after we passed the HEROES Act, Leader McConnell said that we had to take a pause--take a pause. The virus is not pausing, the rent demands are not pausing, and so we cannot pause. While McConnell is denying these families relief, the House will pass this bill to promote housing security.

We continue to call on the Senate to pass the HEROES Act to secure lifesaving housing and homelessness prevention measures which include, as I said, the $100 billion, the $75 billion, and the $11.5 billion for assistance to people experiencing homelessness and for homelessness prevention, building on the $4 billion provided in the CARES Act. We need more now. It includes:

The freezing of evictions and foreclosures, including expanding the moratorium in the CARES Act to cover all renters until March 2021.

Rental assistance support for the most vulnerable in urban and rural areas, including seniors, persons with HIV/AIDS, people with disabilities, and people living in Tribes.

I am so pleased that Madam Chair put the special rural housing initiative in here. It includes rural emergency vouchers to support people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, including those fleeing domestic violence and assault.

This COVID is a vicious and insidious virus. It is resourceful. It just is out there, and it attacks people, not only their lives, but their livelihood, their housing, their psychological well-being, and everything else. So there are other reasons we should be passing the HEROES Act, but right now I will stay focused on this.

I thank Madam Chair also for having the provisions that relate to staving off foreclosures for those who will not be able to pay the mortgage.

Mr. Speaker, I urge a strong bipartisan vote for the Emergency Housing Protections and Relief Act to safeguard America's housing and financial security during this time of crisis.

Mr. Speaker, we are asking people to shelter in place, to shelter at home, and they should do that. But because of COVID they may be evicted, but not if Madam Chair Maxine Waters has her way. I urge a strong bipartisan vote for financial security for America's working families.

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