Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) reintroduced the “Public Housing Emergency Response Act” in the Senate on May 20. The NLIHC-endorsed bill provides a one-time, $70 billion appropriation to address the backlog of public housing maintenance and repairs.
The National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO) recently increased from $70 billion to $90 billion, its estimate of the backlog of repairs needed for the existing public housing stock – all due to Congress chronically underfunding the public housing Capital Fund. As a result, tens of thousands of public housing residents live in unsafe and unhealthy conditions, and HUD estimates approximately 10,000 public housing units are lost every year. The Public Housing Emergency Response Act would enable tenants to live in safer conditions and ensure that the U.S. is not losing existing units to disrepair.
“Preserving public housing must be central to any plan to address our nation’s housing and homelessness crisis, given the severe shortage of rental homes affordable and available to America’s lowest-income and most marginalized households,” stated NLIHC President and CEO Diane Yentel in a Senator Warren press release. “For decades, Congress has turned its back from its obligations to public housing residents, forcing them to choose between living in homes in severe disrepair or facing increased risks of housing insecurity and homelessness. Congress should enact Senator Warren’s Public Housing Emergency Response Act to invest $70 billion to preserve public housing for current residents and future generations and to help right this wrong.”
Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ed Markey (D-MA), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and Tina Smith (D-MN) joined Senator Warren as original cosponsors. Representative Nydia Velázquez (D-NY) introduced a companion bill (H.R.307) in the House of Representatives in January 2023.
Read Senator Warren’s press release at: https://tinyurl.com/muz4zxc5
Read the bill text at: https://tinyurl.com/ytrz4ba9
More information about public housing is on page 4-36 of NLIHC’s 2024 Advocates’ Guide.