NLIHC Urges Support for Rental Assistance Legislation

NLIHC urges organizations in states with Senators on the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs to sign onto letters urging passage of housing assistance reform legislation this year. The individual letters will be sent to Senators Tim Johnson (D-SD), Jack Reed (D-RI), Charles Schumer (D-NY), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Jon Tester (D-MT), Mark Warner (D-VA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Kay Hagan (D-NC), Joe Manchin (D-WV), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND), Michael Crapo (R-ID), Richard Shelby (R-AL), Bob Corker (R-TN), David Vitter (R-LA), Mike Johanns (R-NE), Patrick Toomey (R-PA), Mark Kirk (R-IL), Jerry Moran (R-KS), Tom Coburn (R-OK), and Dean Heller (R-NV). In addition to the letters to individual Senators from organizations in their states, national organizations can also add their names to a national letter that was initially sent to all members of the Banking Committee earlier this year. The deadline for signing onto these letters is May 29.NLIHC continues to work with a coalition of organizations committed to securing enactment of rental assistance reform legislation in 2013. The legislation, formerly referred to as the Section 8 Voucher Reform Act and the Affordable Housing and Self-Sufficiency Improvement Act, has been in development since 2005. In February, national organizations sent a letter to the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs urging swift enactment this year and outlining ten areas of broad consensus in the proposal, which would result in savings of more than $2.5 billion over a five year period. Among the ten consensus points described in the letter is the 2012 “stakeholder agreement” on expansion of the controversial Moving to Work demonstration program. Sign on to any of the state-specific letters and the national letter at: http://bit.ly/15f33pj Read the initial February 21 letter from national organizations to the Senate Committee on Banking at: http://bit.ly/13foq8K Read more about the Moving to Work stakeholder agreement from April 2012 at: http://bit.ly/11uDjHc