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Frank Melville Supportive Housing Investment Act of 2008

Floor Speech

Date: Sept. 17, 2008
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Health and Health Care Housing and Property


FRANK MELVILLE SUPPORTIVE HOUSING INVESTMENT ACT OF 2008 -- (House of Representatives - September 17, 2008)

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Mr. LYNCH. I thank the gentleman from Connecticut for yielding me this time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 5772, the Frank Melville Supportive Housing Investment Act of 2008. This is the only HUD permanent supportive housing program that is exclusively for people with disabilities.

I am pleased to support this legislation, which will reform and strengthen section 811 of the Cranston-Gonzalez National Affordable Housing Act. This bill will actually increase efficiency and better serve eligible disabled persons and, importantly, I think, this bill will streamline the bureaucracy.

Those of us who have tried to assist disabled persons with their housing understand the hoops that one must go through. This bill, I think, through the great work of Congressman Murphy and others, has solved much of that. But there is much to be said about the improvements to the current rental assistance program and the system for disbursing capital advances, which actually create and maintain affordable units.

Additionally, this bill will require HUD to carry out an important competitive demonstration program to expand the supply of truly supportive housing. I am especially pleased that this bill also authorizes appropriations for that assistance under section 8 in fiscal year 2009.

Having grown up in public housing, I am probably more aware than most of the important role that public housing fills in terms of the needs of our disabled community. This is especially true for our disabled citizens, who have a greater need for housing and facilities that meet their particular disabilities.

I encourage my colleagues to support those most in need in our country by voting for this important bipartisan measure. I must say Mr. Murphy has been very gracious in recognizing everyone who has been involved here, but I must, in turn, I think, recognize his great involvement and great leadership here.

On behalf of all the families out there, like mine, who have disabled persons, and we recognize the challenges that they deal with every day on a regular basis, I just want to extend our thanks to Chris Murphy, the Congressman from Connecticut, for his great work on this bill.

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