The housing lobby is hoping use a worsening housing crisis among the nation's working poor to convince the new Bush Administration and Congress that a new federal multi-family housing production program is in order.

As outlined by the National Housing Conference, some 13.7 million households -- one in every seven Americans -- pay more than half their incomes to put roofs over the heads or live in severely dilapidated housing.

Moreover, according to NHC's reading of preliminary Census Bureau data, the problem isn't limited to the poorest folk who earn less than 30 percent of their local median income. It's even more severe for those who make between 50 percent and 120 percent of median. And it's worst for those making between 80 percent and 120 percent.

People who earn less than 50 percent of the area median typically are unemployed. But in 1997, 1.2 million families who held down one or more full-time jobs faced critical housing needs. And by 1999, that number was up to 1.7 million, an increase of 38 percent.

In the 80-120 percent category, the number rose by 74 percent to 691,000.

The bottom line: "Having a job, and even having two jobs, might not guarantee a family a decent place to live at an affordable price," NHC Executive Director Robert Reid said.

Andrew Woodward, president of the Mortgage Bankers Association, agreed. The disturbing figures "should be a wake-up call for policy makers in Washington," he said. "Teachers, firefighters, police officers and other public servants are finding it harder to find housing or pay for it."

The MBA, the National Association of Home Builders and other groups are advocating a new multi-family production plan and are hoping to convince Mel Martinez, the new secretary at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, to champion the cause.

The details of the MBA's proposal are still being developed, Woodward said. "But our objective is very clear -- we want to stimulate construction."

Lobbyists for the organization believe that because there is broad and bipartisan support for affordable housing, the new Bush team will jump at the chance to back what has always been a program backed largely by the Democrats. "It's a natural" for a new Republican White House hoping to win friends by starting fast out of the box, said one top staffer.

Minneapolis Mayor Sharon Sayles Belton hopes that assessment is on target. "We just don't have a problem," she said, "we have a crisis. People are trying to be self-sufficient, but to do that, they need housing."

Speaking for the U.S. Conference of Mayors, of which she is a trustee, Belton said President Bush and his cabinet must be convinced that "our first goal" should be to increase multi-family housing production.

More housing might not solve every problem, the mayor added. "But everyone agrees that first and foremost, we need more resources on the table to build multi-family housing. The resources available at the state and local levels are just not sufficient. We have great programs but not enough money to get the job done."

The housing conference, a coalition of affordable housing experts from the public and private sector, also favors a federal program to spur rental construction.

"There's only one way to achieve" the goal of safe and decent housing for every American that was promised in the National Housing Act of 1949, said Reid. "Vouchers won't do it."

Reid also stressed that housing interests are not talking about reallocating resources to boost multi-family development. "We're asking for a much larger pie," he said, "not a reallocation of the slices."

For more articles by Lew Sichelman, please press here.

Published: February 21, 2001

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