(from Memo to Members by the National Low Income Housing Coalition) HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan gave the keynote speech at NLIHC's 2010 annual policy conference, in which he reflected on his first year as Secretary and on plans for the year to come. The Secretary began by speaking about an early life experience in which he and other students recreated the Freedom Rides of the 1960s, and then went on to build housing for people with low incomes. That experience, he said, led him to understand "housing as a path to opportunity and justice." The Secretary described his motivation for working on affordable housing issues, saying that it is "making a difference in the lives of those people society has too often forgotten that brings me here today."
"Housing," said the Secretary, "is not about bricks and mortar, not about regulations...It is about human beings."
Secretary Donovan said that "an incredible year of change" in housing policy has passed. He described HUD's actions to address homelessness, including distribution of Homeless Prevention and Rapid Rehousing Program (HPRP) funds and development of a comprehensive plan to end homelessness; distribution of capital stimulus funds to public housing authorities that have saved and created both housing units and jobs; efforts to step up Section 3 enforcement; and an intensified focus on housing recovery in the Gulf Coast.
The Secretary said that HUD will continue to put the "federal government back in the business of affordable rental housing" with the FY11 budget. In addition to speaking about the need to capitalize the National Housing Trust Fund, the Secretary promoted HUD's plans for fully funding operating expenses to keep subsidized households secure, serving a record number of households with Section 8, increasing funding for homelessness services, streamlining rental assistance to increase resident choice, and strengthening the Choice Neighborhoods Initiative proposal to place more focus on reaching a one-for-one replacement of valuable affordable units.
In closing, the Secretary emphasized the importance of housing as the cornerstone to economic and social success. "If there isn't equal access to safe, affordable housing, there isn't equal opportunity," he said.
Take Action on on redevelopment and help protect housing funds now!
In continuing efforts to increase access to supportive housing for high utilizers of public health resources, and maximize the efficient use of scarce public resources, City and County Departments issued the first collaborative Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) last month.
