Date: 2016-02-02
Speaker: MAXINE WATERS (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Chair. I yield myself as much time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman. we are here today to discuss H.R. 3700. but I would like to start by saying how pleased I am that we are focusing on housing. This is the first major housing bill that the Financial Services Committee has considered in the past several Congresses. and I hope that we can spend a lot more time focusing on the dire housing needs of lowincome families in America as we move forward. Today. only one in four households in this country who are eligible to receive housing assistance actually receive it. and there is a severe deficit of over 7 million rental units that are both affordable and available to extremely lowincome Americans. Furthermore. according to HUDs most recent pointintime count. there are nearly 600.000 Americans who are homeless in this countrya staggering number I find simply unconscionable. These statistics demonstrate that we must come together to make reforms to Federal housing programs. but also to commit new resources to tackle the extreme lack of affordable housing in this country. I spend a lot of time visiting and talking with housing and homeless services providers. Recently. I visited the Downtown Womens Center in Los Angeles and N Street Village here in D.C. These homeless service providers are helping women and families get off the streets and into safe. decent. affordable. and supportive housing. Organizations such as these are not just applying compassion. they are applying evidencebased approaches to addressing homelessness in the most effective ways. H.R. 3700 is a step in the right direction because it directly responds to concerns that I have heard over and over again from these housing and homeless service providers about how Federal housing programs can better support their efforts. This bill would make several incremental changes across a number of Federal housing programs that will allow us to better serve lowincome families in need of housing assistance while also relieving certain administrative burdens. These changes would affect public housing. section 8 Tenant and ProjectBased Rental Assistance. the Federal Housing Administration. the Rural Housing Service. and HUDs homelessness programs. among others. Many of the provisions are commonsense reforms that are long overdue. For example. this bill includes the text of my bill. the ProjectBased Voucher Improvement Act of 2015. which would increase flexibility for public housing authorities to develop new units of housing to serve vulnerable populations. including those who are homeless in this country. It would also help to create housing opportunities in areas where vouchers are difficult to use. Several national and local tenant advocacy organizations and affordable housing industry groups have expressed support for my bill. In addition. a number of other provisions in H.R. 3700 were included in previous section 8 reform bills that I have introduced. I am pleased that my Republican colleagues have expressed their support for these provisions that I have long advocated. At the markup of this bill. I raised a serious concern that I had with one of the provisions in H.R. 3700 because it would effectively raise rents for lowincome families with children who are living in certain HUDassisted housing. I voted against the bill in committee. Although I voted against the bill at the committee markup for this reason. I am very pleased to say that I have worked. and my staff has worked. with my Republican colleagues so that we could find some common ground. and they have indicated that they will support my amendment that I have offered to address this issue. I am encouraged that my Republican colleagues shared in my concerns and that we were able to reach a meaningful compromise on this issue. Mr. Chairman. that is why I am now urging my colleagues to vote "yes" on H.R. 3700. It is high time we came together to pass a bipartisan housing bill. Mr. Chairman. I reserve the balance of my time.