Date: 2003-10-01
Speaker: GARY G. MILLER (republican)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Speaker. I really want to commend the gentlewoman from Florida for doing this. This is a really. really. really good bill. I had been a builder for over 30 years in my real life before coming to government. The gentleman from Ohio (Chairman OXLEY) really has a passion for this issue. The gentleman from Massachusetts (ranking member FRANK). a good friend of mine. has really done everything he can to look for opportunities to really help people get into homes. and the gentleman from Ohio . who chairs the Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity. just has a supervision and really looks for things that are good. Some would say. why are we doing this? I am a conservative Republican. and one would say. well. why is the government getting involved in this issue. Some real good reasons. The average homeowner has assets totalling about $70.000. Yet the average lowincome renters assets are below $1.000. Most of these people that are going to benefit from this program are already on Section 8 housing vouchers or they are in some type of government housing. So how do we create an environment where people rely on themselves and count less on government? That is to get them in a home. If we leave people in Section 8 housing. they are going to be there. They cannot get out. They do not have the downpayment. the necessary wealth to be able to move into society. as we would say it. and have the experience of the dream of owning a home. There is nothing like selling a home to somebody. watching a person and a family move into home. they have dreams. they have anticipations. they make plans for the future. This is a good bill. Imagine if we get a family into a home that Is now receiving government subsistence. at a point in time they no longer need help from the government because they have acquired wealth in their own home. When they buy that home. their rent remains consistent. When they take and rent a home. whether it is througn Section 8 or a government home. the rent increases as the years goes by. So look at a situation where a family moves into a home. 10 years from now. they are going to pay a lot more than they currently pay if they are renting a home. but if they own that home. they are paying the same 10 years from now as they are today. Our goal in government should be to do everything we can to create the best economic environment we can for the citizens. The best way to do it is to get people into their own home. There is nothing. nothing like moving people into something that they consider their own. rather than something they consider somebody elses they are allowed to rent. We have a situation growing in this country that I consider the new homeless. and these are people who have good jobs. the husband and wife both work. thehusband might be a policeman or a fireman. the wife might be a nurse or whatever or a schoolteacher. and yet they cannot afford to live within the community within which thby work. How many people do my colleagues know whose children were raised in a community they cannot afford to buy a home and live within the city in which they spent their life growing up because it has become so expensive? In many cases. government has created so many roadblocks. they have increased the cost of housing. that we need to look at every opportunity we have to eliminate the roadblocks. to decrease the restrictions and to do everything we can to move people into homeownership. There is a huge shortage of Section 8 housing and government housing for lowincome people. People are on waiting lists. and the reason is the people who currently live in those homes cannot afford to move up to the next level. They are relegated to hat. and we have to change that. This is a great opportunity. It is a bipartisan bill. and I would strongly encourage a yes vote.