Washington, DC – The shutdown was a disgrace, causing stress and hardship for our country’s lowest-income and most vulnerable people. Over time, we will learn the extent of the longer-term damage done to the programs that serve them and to what extent the damage can be remedied.
With a short-term agreement to reopen the government, millions of low-income renters and housing providers can now breathe a sigh of relief. But governing in 3-week increments is unacceptable. Three weeks isn’t enough time even for HUD and USDA to catch up on all their missed work, or for housing providers to have any real assurance that the government will pay its bills next month. Congress and the Administration must immediately work together to enact the full-year spending bills that already have strong bipartisan support. Only with full-year spending bills will low-income renters have the security they deserve, and will the programs that serve them have the assurance of the long-term funding they need to properly function.
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About National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC): Established in 1974 by Cushing N. Dolbeare, the National Low Income Housing Coalition is dedicated solely to achieving socially just public policy that assures people with the lowest incomes in the United States have affordable and decent homes.