Invest in housing to curb the crisis
March 16, 2006
Letters to the editor
The Balitmore Sun
The affordable-housing crisis will not be wished away by
simplistic visions of an "ownership society."
Ending homelessness and achieving stability for low-income
families will require an earnest investment in the production
and maintenance of affordable housing.
The Sun's coverage of Harvard University's recent housing
study rightly frames the issue and demands action ("Need
for affordable rentals grows critical nationwide," March
9).
Advocates would be wise to focus now on the
affordable-housing fund working its way through Congress.
The Federal Housing Finance Reform Act passed the House last
fall, and the Senate is working on companion legislation.
Unlike the House bill, the Senate bill does not yet include
an affordable-housing fund, but an amendment to add one is
highly probable.
Marylanders should call upon Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes (who is
the ranking Democrat on the relevant committee) to punctuate
his decades of housing advocacy by advancing the bill and
pushing for it to include an affordable-housing fund.
Millions of low-income renters across the country - including
displaced persons in the Gulf Coast and Baltimore's 40,000
low-income renters who cycle through our city's homeless
shelters and dilapidated housing - would benefit from such a
service.
Jeff Singer David Johnson Baltimore
The writers are, respectively, the president and CEO and
a health policy specialist for Health Care for the Homeless
Inc.