Bristol Redevelopment & Housing Authority

Bristol Redevelopment & Housing Authority
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“Pathway to Stable and Affordable Housing for All Act”

Introduced on November 21st, the Pathway to Stable and Affordable Housing for All Act aims to effectively end homelessness in America through robust investments in the national Housing Trust Fund, full funding for rental assistance, and expanded funding for homelessness programs.

NLIHC’s Diane Yentel Partners with Senator Hirono and HCDNNJ CEO Berger on Two Op-Eds on Ending Homelessness and Housing Poverty:

Senator Matzi Hirono (D-HI) and NLIHC President and CEO Diane Yentel wrote a joint op-ed published in The Hill about Senator Hirono’s new bill, the “Pathway to Stable and Affordable Housing for All Act,” introduced on November 21 to effectively end homelessness in America through robust investments in the national Housing Trust Fund, full funding for rental assistance, and expanded funding for homelessness programs.

Senator Hirono and Diane criticize the Trump administration’s efforts to exacerbate the homelessness crisis by proposing to slash HUD programs, triple rents for the lowest-income subsidized residents, evict at least 100,000 people including 55,000 children from HUD-assisted housing, and allow homeless shelters to discriminate against transgender and LGBTQ people. They also condemn the Trump administration’s recently published, deeply flawed report encouraging localities to criminalize homelessness – a move that would only worsen the crisis.

“We can end homelessness and housing poverty,” write Senator Hirono and Diane. “We have proven solutions and, as the richest country in the world, bountiful resources. We lack only the political will and courage to fund the solutions like those in Sen. Hirono’s legislation. We must urge our members of Congress to enact this critical bill.”

A second op-ed, “New Jersey Can’t Solve Housing Crisis Alone, It Needs Help from Congress,”  written by Diane and Housing and Community Development Network of NJ (HCDNNJ) President and CEO Staci Berger, was published by NJSpotlight on November 21. Diane and Staci note that nearly three-quarters of renters in New Jersey spend more than half of their incomes on rents and related costs. Nationwide, rents have risen 61% since 1960 while incomes have grown by just 5%. Affordable homes, they explain, are critical to every other area of our lives – from education and health to economic opportunity, racial equity, and more.

Diane and Staci call on the federal government to do much more to address the dire shortage of affordable housing in New Jersey and nationwide. They call for greater investments in the national Housing Trust Fund, a new “Emergency Assistance Fund,” and “Opportunity Vouchers,” as well as the formation of a new bipartisan Affordable Housing Task Force to study and recommend robust solutions to the nation’s shortage of affordable homes.

“Now it is time for our leaders in Washington, DC to support creating the homes we need,” they write. “New Jersey cannot solve the housing crisis alone; our federal government must do better by creating opportunities so all our neighbors and communities can thrive.”

Senator Hirono and Diane’s op-ed is at: https://bit.ly/2XLUqER

Diane and Staci’s op-ed is at: https://bit.ly/34h3O5S