From the Office of Senator Kerry

Thursday, July 13, 2000

Washington, D.C. – Senator John F. Kerry (D-MA) today introduced an amendment that would help to alleviate the current housing crisis for middle class and lower-income wage earners by putting just $5 billion of the Republican Estate Tax Cut into an Affordable Housing Trust Fund .

"Today the Senate has the opportunity to invest less than 5% of a massive Estate Tax Cut and apply it to the greatest need of working families up and down the income scale -- affordable housing. The Senate needs to make a choice between untenable tax cuts for the wealthiest few, or a sensible approach which provides relief to small business owners and family farmers and saves $5 billion to help working people meet their basic housing needs. That choice shouldn't be difficult in a Congress in touch with the real priorities of most Americans," said Senator Kerry.

"While many Americans have prospered in this booming economy, one unfortunate side effect has been a tight housing market that leaves too many working people without a decent and safe place to live. In fact, there is not one metropolitan area in the country where a person making the minimum wage can afford to pay the rent for a two-bedroom apartment. For these families living paycheck to paycheck, one unforseen circumstance, a sick child, a car repair bill, can send them into homelessness. We ought to find room in any tax cut to help make housing affordable for working families in this country."

Over the past 5 years, more than $20 billion has been cut or diverted from federal housing programs for other uses, while the number of Americans without access to affordable housing continues to rise. From 1996 to 1998, there was a 19% reduction in the number of affordable housing units. This amounted to a dramatic reduction of 1.3 million affordable housing units available to low-income Americans to be used for the production of desperately needed affordable housing. Trust Fund assistance would go directly to the production of rental housing for low-income working families. Trust Fund assistance would also be used to promote homeownership for low-income families, those families whose incomes are below 80% of the area median income. 75% of the assistance will be given out through matching grants to States based on need. The remaining 25% will be awarded by HUD through competitive grants to non-profit organizations.

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