U.S. SENATOR PATRICK LEAHY

National Affordable Housing Trust Fund
Senator Patrick Leahy
July 25, 2001

Mr. President, I rise today in support of the National Affordable Housing Trust Fund Act of 2001.  This is an important piece of legislation that will help address the lack of affordable housing available in our nation today.

For far too long we have neglected our nation=s stock of affordable housing, allowing too many properties to fall by the wayside.  Between 1995 to 1997 the nation lost 370,000 affordable rental units -- nearly 5% of the housing available to low-income families.  These homes were lost to deterioration, demolition, or simply because landlords opted out of federal programs in order to secure more lucrative rents.

Unfortunately these units were not replaced at a pace adequate enough to address the need.  Our most vulnerable populations - the low-income, the elderly, and working families - have been left with the difficult task of finding an apartment or a house that they can afford.  Roughly five million households in the United States have Aworst case@ housing needs.  These families are spending over 50% their incomes on rent alone -- leaving precious little to put groceries on the table, gas in their cars, or buy clothes for their kids.

In my home state of Vermont, the situation is no different.   Production of new housing has stalled, prices for rental units have dramatically increased, and rental vacancy rates are at an all time low.  The competition for housing, any housing at all, is so great that many low and middle-income families must stay in hotels, school dorms, and homeless shelters until they can find a permanent place.   This results in a huge personal and emotional loss to the families and drives up the needs for additional state and federal social services dollars to help these people in their time of crisis.

For those fortunate enough to find an apartment available for rent, few are able to afford the rent that the market demands.  It is estimated that the average person would have to earn over $11 dollars per hour to afford a two bedroom apartment at the Fair Market Rent

While Vermont has a dedicated community of state officials, non profit organizations, advocates and affordable housing developers working to ensure the housing needs of our state=s population are met, the resources are simply not available to construct the number of units necessary to alleviate the problem.   As a result the number of homeless families in the state are rising. 

In Chittenden County, Vermont=s most populous region, the number of families seeking services from homeless shelters has risen 400% in three years -- over half of these families are working families, unable to afford a place to live even while holding down a job.  This is a trend we see spreading throughout the state.  We cannot allow this to continue. 

The creation of a National Affordable Housing Trust Fund will go a long way to help address this situation.  By harnessing revenues generated by other federal housing programs, states, communities and non-profit organizations, will be able to leverage local funds for new housing construction in the most needy areas.

I cannot think of a time in recent history when it has been more important to reaffirm the federal government=s commitment to the housing needs of this country, and I am proud to rise as a cosponsor of this bill.  There is a long road ahead of us in our endeavor to create a National Affordable Housing Trust Fund, and I look forward to working with my colleagues to ensure that the final product is fair and equitable to all regions of the country - including rural and small states. 

I urge my colleagues to join me in support of this legislation.

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