Letter to the Hon. Mitch McConnell, Senate Majority Leader, the Hon. Charles Schumer, Senate Minority Leader, the Hon. Richard Shelby, Senate Committee on Appropriations Chairman, and the Hon. Patrick Leahy, Senate Committee on Appropriations Vice Chairman - Cantwell, Murray Push Senate Leadership To Provide Housing Assistance To Communities Impacted by 2020 Wildfires
Letter
Dear Leader McConnell, Minority Leader Schumer, Chairman Shelby, and Vice Chairman
Leahy,
We write to request that the Senate immediately consider and pass urgent federal housing
assistance for residents of Oregon, Washington, and California impacted by historically
destructive and dangerous wildfires. While FEMA has delivered substantial emergency relief to
our home states, the scale of natural disasters in western states demands additional resources that
can only be delivered through disaster supplemental legislation.
Since August dozens of large fires in Oregon, Washington, and California have burned over 5
million acres, displacing tens of thousands of people and resulting in dozens of fatalities. Air
travel was temporarily suspended in several locations due to poor visibility, schools were forced
to close, and many of our constituents have been forced to stay indoors due to extremely
hazardous air quality conditions. Many of these homes and business are uninsured, leaving these
victims even more vulnerable in the recovery process.
The current wildfires will further exacerbate an already critical affordable housing shortage
impacting western states. Oregon, California, and Washington are short over 1.2 million
affordable rental housing units, and have an average of 75% of extremely low income renter
households dealing with severe cost burden.
State resources and funding were already seriously strained by the COVID-19 pandemic, and are
now completely depleted by weeks of fighting some of the most dangerous and widespread fires
on record. With nowhere else to turn, western states are looking to the Senate to deliver critical
housing relief. We strongly encourage you to consider including the following specific funding
levels and programs as you work to negotiate an appropriate disaster supplemental response
package in the near future.
1. $15 billion for Community Development Block Grant -- Disaster Recovery
a. To ensure that funds reach victims quickly, HUD should use the same process by
which CDBG -- COVID Relief (CDBG-CV) funds were recently allocated and
disbursed.
b. CDBG grantees should be allowed to immediately use CDBG-CV funds to assist
people significantly impacted by fire.
c. Current CDBG grantees should be allowed to pledge CDBG and CDBG-DR
estimated allocations as collateral for funding through HUD's Section 108 Loan
Guarantee Program, and borrow up to 10 times their estimated annual allocation.
d. CDBG-DR funds should be able to pay of land acquisition loans executed as a
direct result of fire recovery efforts.
2. $3 billion for the National Housing Trust Fund
a. $3 billion for wildfire impacted states will help incentive and prioritize affordable
housing rebuilding, including private owners of manufactured housing parks who
might otherwise sell to an investor to build luxury housing.
3. $2 billion Emergency Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) Funding
a. CDFI funding can quickly ramp up lending capacity in fire impacted states
through the preexisting CDFI lending network.
4. $1 billion for USDA Rural Development and Rural Housing Service
a. Funds should be directed towards repairing and rebuilding housing, community
facilities, and infrastructure projects.
b. Expand USDA's Section 502 Manufactured Housing Loan Pilot program to any
fire impacted state, and modify lending rules to cover new manufactured homes
on land owned by nonprofits and housing authorities.
We thank you for your consideration, and look forward to working with you on this matter of
importance to our states.
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