The Senate released today a budget resolution, setting the stage for Congress to enact a $3.5 trillion infrastructure package. The budget resolution calls for more than $332 billion combined for housing and transportation investments!
The budget resolution is expected to receive a vote on the Senate floor in the coming days, before heading to the House for approval. Once the budget resolution is approved, the Senate Banking Committee and House Financial Services Committee will draft legislation to determine how to invest their allocations in various housing and transportation programs.
Our work is now more important than ever! Advocates should continue to:
- Contact your senators and representatives and demand that any infrastructure package include the HoUSed campaign’s top priorities: a major expansion of rental assistance to every eligible household, at least $70 billion to repair and preserve public housing, and at least $45 billion in the national Housing Trust Fund.
- Urge your members of Congress to cosponsor Chair Maxine Waters’s “Housing is Infrastructure Act” (H.R. 4497) and “Ending Homelessness Act” (H.R. 4496). Together these bills would ensure everyone has a safe, decent, affordable, and accessible place to call home.
Background
The #HoUSed campaign works to achieve the large-scale, sustained investments and anti-racist reforms necessary to ensure that renters with the lowest incomes have stable, accessible, affordable homes. An infrastructure and economic recovery package is our first – and best – opportunity to advance the #HoUSed campaign priorities, including expanding rental assistance, repairing public housing, and investing in the national Housing Trust Fund – at the scale necessary.
The budget resolution, released today by the Senate, calls for more than $332 billion for housing and transportation investments in an infrastructure package. Once the budget resolution is approved by Congress, each committee – including the Senate Banking Committee and House Financial Services Committee – will draft legislation to divvying up its allocation among various programs.
The allocation for housing and transportation investments included in the budget resolution could allow for robust housing investments in line with or even above the $318 billion proposed for housing programs by President Biden in his “American Jobs Plan” (which the administration increased from an initial proposal of $213 billion, thanks to the hard work and tenacity of affordable housing and homelessness advocates). President Biden’s $318 billion included $105 billion in housing-related tax provisions and $213 billion in direct investments.
House Financial Services Committee Chair Maxine Waters has introduced the “Housing is Infrastructure Act,” outlining her priorities for any infrastructure package. The bill calls robust funding for HoUSed campaign’s top priorities, including $200 billion for rental assistance, $75 billion to repair and preserve public housing, and $45 billion to build homes affordable to people with the lowest incomes through the national Housing Trust Fund.
Chair Waters has also introduced the “Ending Homelessness Act” to create a universal rental assistance program – a key pillar of the #HoUSed campaign’s legislative agenda. Funding for rental assistance would be mandatory and phased in over 10 years to ensure that every eligible household could receive a housing voucher. If enacted, the bill would help ensure everyone has a safe, decent, affordable, and accessible place to call home.
Take Action
Build support for the HoUSed campaign’s agenda by:
- Contacting your senators and representatives and demanding that any infrastructure package include the HoUSed campaign’s top priorities: a major expansion of rental assistance to every eligible household, at least $70 billion to repair and preserve public housing, and at least $45 billion for the national Housing Trust Fund to build homes for those most in need.
- Urging your members of Congress to cosponsor Chair Waters’s “Housing is Infrastructure Act” (H.R. 4497) and “Ending Homelessness Act” (H.R. 4496). Together these bills would help ensure everyone has a safe, decent, affordable, and accessible place to call home.
Learn how to contact your members of Congress at: https://www.govtrack.us/