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CNS Story:
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HOUSING Jul-12-2007 (410 words) xxxn
U.S. bishops back trust fund for affordable housing
By Catholic News Service
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The U.S. bishops are backing a bill that would create a national trust fund to build affordable housing.
"The Catholic bishops support housing policies which seek to preserve and increase the supply of affordable housing and help families pay for it," said John Carr, the U.S. bishops' secretary for social development and world peace, at a June 28 press conference noting the bill's introduction in the House.
"We must put in place a sustainable source of funds to build affordable housing," Carr said.
"So many families cannot find or afford decent housing; many families must spend so much of their income for shelter that they forego other necessities, such as food and medicine," he added.
The National Affordable Housing Trust Fund Act of 2007 was introduced by a bipartisan group in the House that includes Reps. Barney Frank, D-Mass., and Jim Ramstad, R-Minn. A July 19 hearing on the measure was scheduled by the House Committee on Financial Services, chaired by Frank.
It will establish a National Housing Trust Fund, a dedicated source of funding for the production, preservation and rehabilitation of 1.5 million affordable homes in 10 years. At least 75 percent of the funds will be for housing for households that are extremely low income, earning less than 30 percent of an area's median income.
"Our experience has demonstrated to us how homelessness and inadequate, substandard housing destroys lives, undermines families, hurts communities and weakens the social fabric of our nation," Carr said. He noted how Catholic groups have long given shelter to the homeless, and how "we have built, and continued to maintain, thousands of affordable housing units.
Yet "despite our efforts -- and the efforts of so many others -- there is just not enough affordable housing available," he added.
According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, there are only 6.2 million homes renting at prices affordable to the 9 million extremely low-income renter households, leaving a shortfall of 2.8 million homes.
Housing trust funds already have been established by more than 600 state and local governments to support affordable housing programs.
"The shelter needs of low-income families are a national priority," Carr said. The bill is "a real opportunity to address our growing affordable housing crisis;" he said, "an opportunity to help families raise their children in thriving communities; an opportunity to meet the nation's promise of a decent home for every American family."
END
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