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NAHRO Urges Focus on Housing and Community Development Challenges

Contact: Liz Hennessy, 202-289-3500 ext. 280 or lhennessy@nahro.org

WASHINGTON, Sept. 2 - The National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO) today encouraged the nation's leaders to focus on the lack of affordable housing and economic development opportunities in our communities.

"The United States faces a critical shortage of affordable housing for families, the elderly, and the disabled," said NAHRO President James Inglis. "Communities lack the resources necessary to cope with new population growth and position themselves to meet the demands of a changing global economy.

"Although housing issues historically have not been among our nation's top priorities," Inglis said, "affordable housing is vital to our nation's communities. NAHRO urges our nation's leaders to focus on the housing and economic development challenges facing our communities."

Current challenges facing U.S. communities include:

95 million Americans more than twice the number lacking health insurance face housing problems, including cost burden, overcrowding, or substandard conditions.

Nowhere in America can a full-time, minimum wage earner afford a modest two-bedroom home at the federally-defined fair market rent.

On any given night, 850,000 people are homeless, many of them children.

Brownfields in need of redevelopment blight an estimated 500,000 neighborhoods across the country.

The upcoming debate in Congress over fiscal year 2005 appropriations will be crucial. The House has already acted in full committee to cut major housing and community development programs by as much as 4 percent.

"America's future depends a great deal on an ongoing commitment from Congress to fund activities that promote sustainable community development and affordable housing," NAHRO Executive Director Saul Ramirez said. "With poverty on the rise and fewer people gainfully employed, our national leaders must take charge and reinvest in our cities. A national dialogue needs to occur so that a responsible plan to address our nation's housing and community development needs can be set in motion."