Senator Mazie Hirono (D-HI) introduced a bill, the "Pathway to Stable and Affordable Housing for All Act," on November 21 to effectively end homelessness through robust investments in the national Housing Trust Fund, full funding for rental assistance, and expanded funding for homelessness programs.
More than 500,000 people experience homelessness on any given night, and three in four households eligible for housing assistance are turned away due to chronic underfunding of key housing programs. Senator Hirono’s bill would ensure that every household eligible for rental assistance receives the help they need to afford their home. In addition, the bill would invest $400 billion in the national Housing Trust Fund and $130 billion for McKinney-Vento homeless assistance grants over ten years.
Senator Hirono and NLIHC President and CEO Diane Yentel highlighted the bill in an op-ed published in The Hill. They also criticize the Trump administration’s efforts to exacerbate the homelessness crisis by proposing to slash HUD programs, triple rents for the lowest-income subsidized residents, evict at least 100,000 people including 55,000 children from HUD-assisted housing, and allow homeless shelters to discriminate against transgender and LGBTQ people. They also condemn the Trump administration’s recently published, deeply flawed report encouraging localities to criminalize homelessness – a move that would only worsen the crisis.
Senator Hirono’s and Ms. Yentel’s op-ed is at: https://bit.ly/2XLUqER