Statement from National Low Income Housing Coalition President and CEO Diane Yentel on the Introduction of Companion Housing Bill

NLIHC applauds Congressman Richmond for introducing the House companion to Senator Warren’s American Housing and Economic Mobility Act of 2018.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 11 – (RealEstateRama) — Our nation’s housing crisis continues to reach new heights, most severely impacting millions of the lowest income seniors, people with disabilities, families with children, and other individuals who struggle to pay rent and make ends meet. Without an affordable home, many of these households face impossible choices between paying rent and putting food on their table, buying medications, or saving for a rainy day. Congressman Cedric Richmond’s (D-LA) American Housing and Economic Mobility Act offer a bold, comprehensive solution to this crisis: by investing in the national Housing Trust Fund at the scale necessary, the bill addresses the underlying cause of the housing crisis – the severe shortage of rental homes affordable and available to the lowest income people. Congress should work quickly to enact the American Housing and Economic Mobility Act to help end homelessness and housing poverty once and for all.

The American Housing and Economic Mobility Act is the House companion to legislation introduced by Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) in September 2018. The bill provides a 10-year investment of nearly $45 billion annually in the Housing Trust Fund, the first new federal housing resource that is exclusively targeted to increase the supply of housing affordable to people with the lowest incomes who face the most severe impacts of the housing crisis. NLIHC’s report, “Getting Started,” shows how the Housing Trust Fund is being used by states to build, rehabilitate and preserve homes for extremely low-income households with incomes at or less than 30% of area median or less than the federal poverty line. The bill also expands the landmark Fair Housing Act to ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, and source of income and creates new incentives for local governments to reduce barriers that drive up the cost of housing.

For more information on the American Housing and Economic Mobility Act, see NLIHC’s fact sheet at: https://bit.ly/2N0Aibg

See NLIHC’s press release on the bill’s introduction by Senator Warren at: https://bit.ly/2SDTP4n

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About NLIHC: Established in 1974 by Cushing N. Dolbeare, the National Low Income Housing Coalition is dedicated solely to achieving socially just public policy that assures people with the lowest incomes in the United States have affordable and decent homes.

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