07/14/08
Support the National Housing Trust Fund
Help Build the Movement for Tenants Rights: Join the Tenants Union!
Washington State tenants have won important legal protections, but these rights don't go far enough. Help build the movement to protect and expand tenants rights and make the promise of safe, healthy, affordable housing a reality: 
Call your representative today to voice support for the creation of a National Housing Trust Fund to provide affordable housing for very low-income households!
You may use this toll free number: 1-877-210-5351 (provided by the National Low Income Housing Coalition). Ask for the congressional switchboard and ask to be connected to the housing staffer in your representative’s office. If you don’t know who your Rep is, you can just give them your zip code and they will connect you.
A National Housing Trust fund will create a source of funding for the creation and preservation of affordable housing: The bill would target at least 75% of the funds to be used for rental housing to people with income below 30% of area median (about $19,000 for a two person household). All of the funds would have to benefit people with incomes below 50% of area median (about $31,000 for a family of two). Furthermore, the bill places a cap on using housing trust fund resources for homeownership at 10%. This will help ensure that the housing trust fund focuses on the very lowest income households, which have the greatest housing affordability problems.
Stay tuned for information on events as they unfold by signing up for the National Low Income Housing Alliance’s email action alerts or by visiting their website for updates: www.nlihc.org
What is a “Housing Trust Fund” and what will it do?:
Legislation that would establish a National Housing Trust Fund is currently being negotiated between Representative Barney Frank (D-MA), the Chairman of the House Committee on Financial Services, and Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT), the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. The Federal Housing Finance Regulatory Reform Act of 2008, which was passed out of the Senate Banking Committee by a bipartisan vote of 19-2 in May of 2008, supports the basic tenets of the Senate’s National Affordable Housing Trust Fund Act, S. 2523, by identifying dedicated funding sources to produce and preserve housing for the nation’s lowest income households. Similar legislation passed the House of Representatives by a 313-104 vote, with broad bipartisan support.
This housing trust fund, drafted by Senator Jack Reed (D-RI), would be a stand-alone fund that, in addition to the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac resources identified in the bill, could also accept other sources of revenue. This provision will allow the housing trust fund to continue to grow over time so that more housing affordable to extremely and very low income people can be produced and preserved.
The bill would target at least 75% of the funds to be used for rental housing to people with income below 30% of area median. All of the funds would have to benefit people with incomes below 50% of area median. Furthermore, the bill places a cap on using housing trust fund resources for homeownership at 10%. This will help ensure that the housing trust fund focuses on the very lowest income households, which have the greatest housing affordability problems.
The initial source of funds would, of course, be the GSEs, but in the future other sources may be developed and will be needed to meet the goal of providing 1.5 million new affordable housing units. Simply developing a housing fund within the context of the GSE bill cannot accomplish this goal and will hamper efforts in the future to grow the Trust.
It is of the utmost importance that we continue to move towards establishing the NAHTF in this Congress to produce and preserve rental housing for the lowest income families who are suffering the most during this period of economic distress. A National Affordable Housing Trust Fund would also have the economic benefit of creating jobs in the building sector, which is struggling as new housing starts plummet.
The National Affordable Housing Trust Fund Act of 2007, S. 2523, was introduced by Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) in December of 2007. There are currently 21 tri-partisan cosponsors, in addition to Kerry and Snowe, on the Senate bill. House passage was a huge victory for the National Housing Trust Fund (NHTF) Campaign, its more than 5,700 endorsers and for low income people in the United States. The Campaign reached this milestone because of the hard work of thousands of low income housing advocates to educate elected officials about the critical shortage of affordable housing for the lowest income people in our country.
For a copy of the final version that passed the Senate Banking Committee, please follow think link: http://banking.senate.gov/public/_files/FinalGSEBilll.pdf
More background on this bill:
Because features of the Senate-approved bill differ from the House-approved bill, it must go back to the House. House leaders indicate that action on the bill can be completed this week, even though the House wants to make a few, but substantial, changes.
The White House threatens to veto the bill because of a provision in the Senate bill (not related to the NHTF) which would provide $4 billion to communities to buy abandoned, foreclosed properties in order to get them reoccupied by homeowners and renters. In order to avoid slowing down passage of the larger bill, the House is likely to strip the bill of this $4 billion program and introduce separate legislation later.
Rather than convene a conference committee to iron out the differences between the two bills, the bill is expected to be “ping ponged” between the two bodies until agreement is reached.
The developing crisis with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will require new measures to be added on top of what has already passed. The urgency of the GSE crisis may motivate quick action to get the bill to the President as soon as the end of next week.