textfiles-politics/politicalTextFiles/housing.txt

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                   CLINTON/GORE
      ON AFFORDABLE HOUSING FOR ALL AMERICANS



Home ownership and decent housing are an essential
part of the American Dream.  For too many
Americans, that dream is unobtainable.

Home prices have climbed out of  the reach of
middle class Americans.  Affordable housing is
often difficult to find for the working poor and
urban residents.  During the Reagan-Bush years,
federal appropriations for low-income housing
assistance has dropped dramatically -- and a
massive housing shortage has been the result.
Millions of Americans have been left homeless on
our streets.

We can reverse the trend by renewing our commitment
to provide decent, safe and affordable homes to all
Americans, and by forging a new alliance between
federal officials, local community leaders,
residents, and housing professionals. Bill Clinton
and Al Gore have a plan to make home ownership more
than a dream for millions of hard-working
Americans.  We can't afford to do without it.

Make home ownership a reality

*    Raise the ceiling on FHA mortgage insurance to
     95 percent of the price of a home in an
     average metropolitan area.  The increase will
     enable half a million American families to buy
     their first homes.

*    Make home ownership possible for more
     Americans through federal support for
     low-income, long-term housing buyout programs,
     like Tampa's innovative Resurrection of
     Affordable Housing Program.  Innovative
     packages of long-term subsidized financing
     encourage low-income buyers to purchase,
     restore and sell condemned housing.

*    Require HUD and the Department of Justice
     Civil Rights Division to aggressively enforce
     existing fair housing civil rights laws, to
     open up housing opportunities currently closed
     by discrimination.

*    Maintain the mortgage revenue bond program to
     make affordable housing a reality for
     thousands of Americans.

Help America's renters

*    Strengthen the HOME program by giving more
     authority and flexibility  to the state and
     local officials who administer it.  Congress
     created HOME in 1990 to provide additional,
     quality rental housing for low-income
     Americans, but at the Administrations urging
     it limited localities choices in the use of
     HOME funds.

*    Permanently extend the Low Income Housing Tax
     Credit to spur private development of low- and
     very low-income housing; the credit helps
     produce more than 120,000 homes a year.

Revitalize America through community development


*    Put neighborhoods at the center of our efforts
     to revitalize America by coordinating existing
     housing, education, employment training,
     health care, drug treatment and crime
     prevention programs.  Target resources
     community by community  to make the most of
     scarce federal housing funds.

*    Create a nationwide network of community
     development banks to provide small loans to
     low-income businesses and entrepreneurs in the
     inner cities.  These banks will also invest in
     affordable housing, and help mobilize private
     lenders.

*    Create urban enterprise zones in stagnant
     inner cities, but only for companies willing
     to take responsibility.  Business taxes and
     federal regulations will be minimized to
     provide incentives to set up shop.  In return,
     companies will have to make jobs for local
     residents a top priority.

*    Ease the credit crunch in our inner cities by
     passing a more progressive Community
     Reinvestment Act to prevent redlining ;
     require financial institutions to invest in
     homes in their communities.

New hope for low-income housing and public housing
residents

*    Empower low-income housing residents to expel
     drug dealers and criminals from the buildings
     in which they live: encourage programs like
     the Chicago Housing Authorities Operation
     Clean Sweep, which has helped housing
     residents clean up buildings and kick out
     criminals; give tenants a greater role in
     building management to instill pride and
     responsibility, and reduce bureaucracy.
*    Preserve our nations multi-billion dollar
     investment in public housing by ensuring that
     adequate funding for maintenance and upkeep is
     included in the HUD budget.

Fighting homelessness

*    Transfer 10 percent of HUD and other
     government-controlled housing to community
     non-profit organizations and churches to house
     the homeless.

*    Use the housing available at closed military
     bases to house the homeless, giving preference
     to homeless military veterans.

*    Develop targeted strategies to help different
     homeless populations  those who need
     supported living environments, those who need
     residential drug and alcohol treatment, and
     those who need housing for their families
     because they can't afford it.

*    Hold a Housing and Homelessness Summit with
     urban leaders and mayors to create a new
     consensus for poverty programs, funding
     levels, and federal assistance for innovative
     housing crisis solutions.

The Record

*    Governor Clinton created the Arkansas
     Development Finance Authority in 1985.  ADFA
     has a national reputation for developing
     innovative and result-oriented housing
     programs which have made possible the purchase
     of thousands of homes for low and moderate
     income Arkansans. ADFA also initiated a
     five-state, first-of-its-kind bond issue which
     preserved 46,000 low-income housing units
     across the nation.

*    Founded the Arkansas Interagency Council for
     the Homeless in order to prepare a plan to
     address homelessness in Arkansas.  As a
     result, thirty state agencies have worked
     together in efforts to help the homeless.

*    Senator Gore was an active supporter and
     cosponsor of the National Affordable Housing
     Act, which provides more affordable housing
     for all Americans.  The legislation also
     encourages more partnerships between the
     federal government, the private sector, and
     state and local governments.

*    Cosponsored Fair Housing Amendments which add
     families and handicapped individuals to the
     list of protected groups and streamline the
     procedures for enforcing fair housing
     legislation.

*    Coauthored the Stewart B. McKinney Homeless
     Assistance Act which authorized health care,
     emergency food and shelter, child care
     services and training for the homeless.
     Senator Gore was also  an original cosponsor
     of the Stewart McKinney Reauthorization Act.
     As the number of Americans who are homeless
     increases, Senator Gore continues the effort
     to fully fund Stewart McKinney homeless
     assistance programs.

*    Cosponsored the Rural Homelessness Assistance
     Act, which creates a grant program to treat
     and prevent rural homelessness.  The
     legislation also makes FHA inventory housing
     available for use as transitional permanent
     housing.