Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) are urging congressional leadership to include major affordable housing investments in any future budget reconciliation package.
In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, they say the lack of affordable housing is a key drive of homelessness in California and nationwide, adding that the House-passed Build Back Better bill included important housing investments, including:
· $25 billion for affordable and accessible housing production, including $15 billion for the National Housing Trust Fund, of which more than $2.6 billion would go to California;
· An expansion of the low-income housing tax credit, which could help California produce more than 136,000 new affordable housing units, 203,000 jobs, $22 billion in business income, and $7 billion in tax revenue;
· $25 billion for housing vouchers, which would house an estimated 107,000 low-income Californians, including 36,000 children; and
· $65 billion for public housing repairs, which could benefit 27,000 California households.
“These investments will be critical to providing safe and affordable housing along with an opportunity to end intergenerational poverty,” reads the letter. “Low-income families would have the means to achieve greater opportunity and improve life outcomes for their children.”
The senators say they want to see the housing investments maintained in any revised version of the Build Back Better bill, which stalled in the Senate.