Congress approves $26b HUD Housing budget increase FWD

Tom Boland (wgcp@earthlink.net)
Wed, 7 Oct 1998 20:06:59 -0400 

http://www.sfgate.com:80/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=3D/examiner/hotnews/storie=
s/06/h
ousing.dtl


              HOUSING BUDGET INCREASE WINS CONGRESS' APPROVAL
              By Eric Rosenberg
              Examiner Washington Bureau
              Tuesday, October 6, 1998
              =A91998 San Francisco Examiner

              Extra $2 billion will boost number of Section 8 families,
              ease mortgage rules


              WASHINGTON - House and Senate negotiators approved a $26
billion budget for the Department of Housing and Urban Development that
would add 90,000 families to subsidized housing rolls and raise federally
insured loan limits so more poor Americans could buy homes.

              A contentious measure approved by the House this summer that
targeted San Francisco's domestic partners ordinance was not in the final
spending measure unveiled Monday.

              The ordinance requires private contractors doing business
with The City to offer single employees with domestic partners the same
benefits that they give married employees.

              The House measure would have barred San Francisco from
spending federal housing money to implement the ordinance. The Senate
version of the HUD bill contained no such provision, and House negotiators
dropped the idea in deliberations with their Senate counterparts.

              President Clinton hailed the measure, which would boost HUD's
annual budget by about $2 billion, as a "bipartisan housing bill that
incorporates all of the essential principles for which we have fought
during the long, difficult negotiations that led to this agreement."

              But the president held out the possibility that he may veto a
larger legislative package that contains the housing budget as well as
funds for the Department of Veterans Affairs and various independent
agencies.

              Clinton said he "remains concerned" about the funding levels
for certain environmental and economic development programs contained in
the larger measure, which Congress is still reviewing.

              HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo said he was pleased that the
budget includes most of what the administration had requested from Congress
in February.

              "This is the president's program," Cuomo said in a telephone
news conference. He called the HUD budget "truly historic legislation" and
a "tremendous win" for the White House.

              The measure includes:

              *Additional subsidies for rental housing. Funds would pay
part of the housing costs for 90,000 additional poor families through the
so-called Section 8 rental assistance program. Congress has not approved
additional Section 8 subsidies in nearly five years. Currently, about 3
million families receive the aid.

              *Funds to increase home ownership. The negotiators agreed to
increase the limits on Federal Housing Administration-insured mortgage
loans from $170,362 to $197,621.

              *Money to promote a wider distribution of income levels in
public and assisted housing. In this effort, a number of large dilapidated
public housing projects would be torn down and replaced with townhouses.
The program would also "deconcentrate" poor families by placing some of the
lowest-income groups in buildings with somewhat higher-income families. The
negotiators also approved $975 million to fight homelessness, an increase
of 17 percent over 1998.

END FORWARD

** NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is
distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. **

HOMELESS PEOPLE'S NETWORK  <http://aspin.asu.edu/hpn/>  Home Page
ARCHIVES  <http://aspin.asu.edu/hpn/archives.html>  read posts to HPN
TO JOIN  <http://aspin.asu.edu/hpn/join.html> or email Tom <wgcp@earthlink.n=
et>