Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, delivered the following remarks in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Housing Choice Voucher Program. During the event, HUD recognized Congresswoman Waters for her longstanding leadership and commitment in Congress to expanding affordable housing opportunities.
Good morning, all. Thank you so much to Acting Secretary Adrianne Todman for the very warm welcome. It is an honor to be here with you all for today’s celebration and I am deeply grateful to be recognized with this certificate of appreciation. Your recognition of the work we are doing in Congress reaffirms our shared commitment to advance fair and affordable housing opportunities for all and to finally end homelessness. I’d also like to take a moment to acknowledge the role that HUD plays in our nation’s economy and in the lives of millions of families across the country. I must also commend the work that HUD has carried out under the outstanding leadership of both former Secretary Marcia Fudge and Acting Secretary Todman.
It is an absolute honor to be here with you all today to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Housing Choice Voucher Program. The voucher program, which provides rental subsidies to help reduce cost burdens, was created to bolster low-income families’ ability to live in the neighborhoods of their choice — providing many families living in economically depressed areas, which were often along racially segregated, with a wider range of housing options that suit their needs and boost life outcomes.
As the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, ending our nation’s affordable housing and homelessness crisis remains at the top of my agenda and vouchers play a critical role in those efforts. As everyone here understands, housing is at the heart of everything. Without it, our communities, our children, and our nation experience diminished educational, health, social, and economic outcomes. We know that housing choice vouchers not only help reduce homelessness and housing instability by helping to ensure low-income families can access the private housing market, but they also provide communities with a critical tool to advance resident mobility, to build and preserve more deeply affordable housing through project-based assistance and reduce poverty.
That’s why Committee Democrats are working tirelessly to strengthen and expand the Housing Choice Voucher Program. For example, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, I secured $5 billion through the American Rescue Plan Act for the first-ever Emergency Housing Voucher Program targeted specifically to people experiencing or at risk of homelessness, survivors of domestic violence, and victims of human trafficking. This program, which included some of the first-of-its-kind administrative flexibilities to get people housed more quickly and effectively, helped to curb an anticipated spike in homelessness during the pandemic. HUD’s work in administering these new vouchers has made a deep impact, including in my state of California, which not only has some of the highest rates of homelessness in the country, but also received about a quarter of these vouchers.
Unfortunately, however, the housing and homelessness crisis has only worsened since the pandemic and continues to drive stubborn core inflation. Today, there is a shortage of nearly 14 million homes for rent or purchase, leading to an affordability nightmare. Since 2020, median asking rents spiked by 41 percent as house prices skyrocketed by nearly 50 percent nationwide. Make no mistake, the scale of this crisis threatens to push even more families into homelessness, making vouchers a crucial part of the housing safety net.
That’s why, earlier this Congress, I reintroduced my legislative housing package, which includes the “Housing Crisis Response Act,” the “Downpayment Toward Equity Act,” and the “Ending Homelessness Act.” Together, these bills represent the single largest and most comprehensive housing investment in our nation’s history. As many in the room know, only 1 in 4 households who qualify for voucher assistance receive it as a result of chronic underfunding of the program. My bill, the “Ending Homelessness Act,” would transform the Housing Choice Voucher program into a federal entitlement to ensure that every household that qualifies for assistance receives one. We also know that discrimination in the housing market remains a huge barrier to too many voucher holders. That’s why my bill would also ban housing discrimination based on source of income and veteran status. Next Congress I hope Democrats and Republicans can work together to get these bills across the finish line.
Once again, I want to thank HUD and Acting Secretary Todman for your continued partnership, and I look forward to continuing the work with you next Congress to make the Housing Voucher Program even stronger for families in the next fifty years to come. Thank you!
