Letter sent to Senate leaders urging funding for the National Housing Trust Fund

The National Housing Trust Fund campaign has sent a letter to Senate leaders on March 19, 2010 expressing disappointment that the Senate had not yet taken up proposals to capitalize the National Housing Trust Fund in either of the two “jobs” bills that have been passed by the Senate and urging that it be included in the next jobs bill that the Senate is working on now. The third bill will focus on small business. The letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) was signed by 36 national housing, civil rights, and faith organizations. The letter was copied to 19 other Senators. The organizations ask that the Senate act now to capitalize the NHTF by providing $1.065 billion for the NHTF, including $1 billion for capital grants and $65 million for project-based vouchers to assist NHTF-funded units, at the soonest possible date. “These homes provided by the NHTF will help address the serious shortage of housing affordable and available for the lowest income families in the United States, including people who are unemployed or employed in the low wage work force, veterans, and elderly and disabled people on fixed incomes,” the organizations wrote. The organizations also reiterated the severity of the affordable housing shortage in the U.S. today. “There are only 37 affordable and available rental homes for every 100 renter households with income at or below 30 percent of their area median ($19,620 a year in Las Vegas),” the letter read. “This acute scarcity of housing that the poorest families can afford is the principle cause of homelessness in the United States.” The House-passed “jobs” bill includes $1.065 billion for the NHTF. Click here to view the letter. For more information, visit www.nlihc.org.