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Washington, DC - The House Financial Services Committee today passed H.R. 1227, the “Gulf Coast Hurricane Housing Recovery Act of 2007.” The bill, as amended, passed on a bipartisan vote of 50-16, and will provide comprehensive housing relief for the hurricane impacted areas of the Gulf Coast. The measure will provide increased flexibility for already allocated funds, provides new oversight of existing programs, preserves public housing and assists evacuees with rental housing, and provides support for landlords and local communities who assisted evacuees with housing.
"Today, the people of the Gulf Coast won a tremendous victory. The ‘Gulf Coast Hurricane Housing Recovery Act of 2007’ will help to facilitate the implementation of recovery in a real and meaningful way. This bill will allow for the use of certain monies to be used as matching funds to provide necessary waivers and add over one billion dollars in aid transferred from FEMA to those who need it most. Additionally, reporting requirements in this bill will help speed up subsidies to homeowners to rebuild their homes," said Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), Chair of the Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity. "Most importantly, this bill will create the opportunity for residents of public housing to be able to return from cities around the country to their everyday lives. I am glad we have finally made it possible for them to go home."
Specifically, the bill passed by the Committee today will provide the following:
Flexibility: The bill provides much needed flexibility for use of previously appropriated federal funds to speed up recovery efforts. It frees up $1.2 billion in funds for Louisiana’s Road Home Program, for which FEMA is currently withholding use - by transferring the funds to the CDBG account. It eliminates an unnecessary restriction imposed by the prior Congress against CDBG funds being used to meet matching requirements under other federal programs.
Oversight: The bill requires that the Louisiana Recovery Authority, the entity that administers the Road Home program, report on their progress every thirty days.
Preservation of Federal Housing Assistance: The bill includes a number of provisions to rebuild the stock of affordable housing and to ensure that the Administration will not shrink the level of housing assistance that supports that housing stock. Specifically, it requires HUD to provide a replacement voucher for every public or assisted housing unit destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. It requires HUD to approve proposals to reestablish or re-site damaged affordable federally assisted housing units owned by private landlords. It requires that replacement affordable housing units be provided for every public housing unit in New Orleans that HUD wants to demolish. It requires HUD to report on the number of public housing units which are being planned to be sold off in areas impacted by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. And, it authorizes housing voucher assistance for evacuees living in other parts of the country who might otherwise lose their assistance in September. This bill requires that HUD open 3,000 public housing units in New Orleans.
Assistance for Communities and landlords that assisted evacuees: The bill provides assistance for generous communities and landlords that offered rental housing assistance nationwide for evacuees from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The bill authorizes reimbursements for communities that used their own CDBG funds to provide rental assistance to evacuees after the storms hit. And it reimburses landlords who assisted evacuees for financial damages caused by FEMA abrogating commitments made right after the storm under the FEMA Section 403 City Lease program.
“Today’s bipartisan work by the Committee on Financial Services means we will reverse the last 18 months of inaction in housing policy in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast,” said Chairman Frank. “What we did here today is significant; we have committed ourselves to rebuilding housing in the gulf coast, and I look forward to working with our leadership to bring this to a House vote soon.”
In addition, the bill was amended to include the following:
An amendment to authorize funding for 4,500 new project based vouchers for supportive housing for seniors, disabled, and the homeless. [Rep. Al Green (D-TX)]
An amendment to protect the inventory of affordable housing units in the gulf – by preventing sell off of public housing units unless affordability maintained for the longest feasible period, by requiring replacement of demolished public housing units, and by protecting residents by providing relocation assistance for displaced residents. [Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver (D-MO)]
To provide protections for housing agencies adversely impacted by Hurricane Wilma, by clarifying that HUD shall make adjustments in the voucher allocation formula for agencies whose voucher utilization rates fell as a result of Wilma. [Rep. Frank – Manager’s Amendment] |
