National Affordable Housing Trust Fund Act of 2007

Floor Speech

NATIONAL AFFORDABLE HOUSING TRUST FUND ACT OF 2007 -- (House of Representatives - October 10, 2007)

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Mr. WELCH of Vermont. Mr. Chairman, I want to thank Chairman Frank and his Committee staff, particularly Scott Olson, for working with me on this important bill to reach a compromise on issues in the bill affecting small states.

The legislation as a whole creates a national housing trust fund for the construction, rehabilitation, and preservation of an estimated 1.5 million units of affordable housing for low-income families. Along with food, health care, and energy costs, affordable housing can make all the difference in economic survival.

In Vermont, we have a great need for affordable housing. While so many low- and moderate-income households aspire to own their own home, limited supply, rising costs, and other barriers can make this dream out of reach. Beginning in 2005, the new construction of 12,321 owner-occupied homes in Vermont was needed to meet the total demand expected in 2010.

Creating a National Affordable Housing Trust Fund is the brainchild of my predecessor in the House, Bernie Sanders, and I thank him for getting the ball rolling.

I am grateful to Chairman Frank for including two items I recommended into the manager's amendment. The first provision will ensure that each State receive at least one half of one percent of funding. For a State agency, there really is a funding level below which it's incredibly inefficient to administer a Federal program. There are always numerous Federal requirements resulting in a tremendous amount of work to comply. In addition, it's hard to raise the expectations of those who would potentially benefit from the program and then have very little money to deliver.

Furthermore, numerous social programs, including the HOME program to which this trust fund is similar, include small state minimums. For programs that are targeted at a need that is universal, it is a pretty rational argument that a mechanism should be in place to ensure that a portion of funding gets distributed nationwide. In this case, for something like housing, it is a nationwide issue so the appropriations of Congress should be a nationwide effort.

The second provision in the manager's amendment says that within the participating local jurisdictions pool of funding, that each State has at least one local jurisdiction receiving funding. Currently in the bill, for a local jurisdiction set to receive less than $750,000, that amount is reduced to zero. Without this guarantee, many small cities and small States risk receiving no funding under this section of the bill.

I thank the Chairman for his excellent work on this legislation.

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