I hope housing advocates will say that to him directly in the coming days. We applaud him for speaking out about what he calls the Great HUDway Robbery, Congress s practice of dipping into housing dollars when extra money is needed for other problems. His expectation that housing dollars be used for housing programs is evidenced in the National Affordable Housing Trust Fund bill he introduced in 2000, in which funds earned by federal housing programs would be used to pay for unmet housing needs. His sponsorship of the Trust Fund was a catalyst for widespread consensus at the close of the 106th Congress on the need for a new housing production program for the lowest income people, and is the springboard for the 2001 campaign for new production resources now underway. Over the coming weeks, advocates from Georgia, New Jersey, Delaware, Michigan, and Nevada will be educating their Senators about housing issues in their home states.
Housing is called a social utility.
The right to housing that meets basic needs at an affordable level is asserted. Preservation of existing federally assisted housing is supported, because it is a vital commodity and increasingly expensive to produce. Further, federal programs to provide funds for the capital costs of new and rehabilitated housing and the subsidies to ensure affordability must be available. Without such funds, the nation s housing crisis will multiply in untold dimensions. It seems that NASW gives Senator Stabenow a good foundation upon which to begin her work on housing policy.