Washington, D.C. -- U.S. Representative Neil Abercrombie announced today that the House has voted 264-148 to create the National Affordable Housing Trust Fund, which will build, rehabilitate or preserve 1.5 million homes or apartments over the next ten years.

The trust fund will allocate between $800 million and $1 billion a year to states and local communities to help provide low- and moderate-income family housing. At least 75% of the funds must be targeted to families making less than $28,000 a year.

Money for the trust fund will come from the earnings of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, two government agencies involved in the secondary mortgage market, and the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), that insures home loans. No additional federal dollars will be required.
 
“It’s no secret that we have a housing crisis in Hawaii, and particularly on Oahu,” said Rep. Abercrombie. “Property values have shot up so much so quickly that average working families—even with two salaries—cannot afford to buy a median-priced home.  The Affordable Housing Trust Fund can help us increase the inventory of moderate- and low-income housing.”

Estimates of homeless persons on Oahu are as high as 6,000. But, under a newer definition of homeless, which includes situations in which two, three or more families are crowded into the same house, Oahu’s homeless population could reach 17,000. 
  
“One of the most significant aspects of this legislation is that at least 75% of the new resources will be used to produce or preserve housing for extremely low-income people,” said Doran Porter, Executive Director of the Affordable Housing and Homeless Alliance, based in Honolulu. “This would be the first new housing production program since 1990, and the only one focused on households with the lowest incomes.”

“Creation of the Affordable Housing Trust Fund will allow more creativity in seeking solutions to our housing crisis,” Porter said, “including prefab houses and the use of land deeded over from the state.”

-30-