WASHINGTON—The National Housing Conference (NHC) welcomes passage of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015, a compromise on spending that will allow greater investments in housing and many other areas of need. This legislation prevents default on already incurred U.S. debt, which NHC and many others warned would have had serious, immediate and long-lasting effects on our nation’s housing industry and on families’ ability to obtain a mortgage or rent a home. This deal also provides a path forward to fund critical housing programs in FY 2016 and FY 2017.
The budget agreement takes an important step forward by raising the caps and relieving the impacts of sequestration by $50 billion in FY 2016 and $30 billion in FY 2017, split evenly between defense and nondefense discretionary spending. As appropriators begin work on new funding legislation with these higher funding levels, NHC urges members of Congress to restore funding for housing programs to address the growing housing affordability challenges in this country, such as the 9.6 million working households paying more than half of their income for housing.
“Congress heard very clearly from housing stakeholders and many others that action on the budget and on the debt limit was needed,” said Chris Estes, President and CEO of NHC. “Now they have to put that newly won budget authority to work on America’s housing challenges through proven tools like the HOME program.”
NHC looks forward to working with Congress to ensure essential funding for housing. With the immediate political crises averted, we can now get to the important work of ensuring that everyone in our nation has access to safe, decent and affordable housing.
###
About the National Housing Conference:
The National Housing Conference represents a diverse membership of housing stakeholders including tenant advocates, mortgage bankers, nonprofit and for-profit home builders, property managers, policy practitioners, Realtors®, equity investors, and more, all of whom share a commitment to safe, decent and affordable housing for all in America. We are the nation’s oldest housing advocacy organization, dedicated to the affordable housing mission since our founding in 1931. We are a nonpartisan, 501(c)3 nonprofit that brings together our broad-based membership to advocate on housing issues. Learn more at nhc.org.
Contact:
Radiah Shabazz
202.466.2121 (ext. 240)
rshabazz@nhc.org