From the U.S. House Financial Services Committee’s July 8 press release:
Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Chairwoman of the House Committee on Financial Services, released the following statement after securing a commitment from President Biden that housing will be included in reconciliation.
“As Chairwoman of the Financial Services Committee and a longtime advocate for ending homelessness and promoting fair, affordable, and accessible housing, my number one priority has been to ensure that President Biden’s infrastructure plan recognizes that Housing Is Infrastructure through robust funding.
As I have followed all of the discussions on the bipartisan infrastructure deal, housing has not been part of the discussions. So, I spoke directly with President Biden on the need to include housing in reconciliation. The President assured me that housing would be included in reconciliation. In addition to this commitment during a White House meeting, the President also confirmed in his speech in Illinois yesterday that housing will be included in reconciliation.
To be clear, as housing costs skyrocket, communities across the country — including rural, suburban, and urban America — need affordable housing now more than ever. To say that the pandemic destabilized an already unstable housing market is an understatement. Our nation’s chronic shortage of affordable housing has left millions of people at all income levels struggling to pay their housing costs, and in the worst cases, has locked people out of homeownership, led to people being evicted or foreclosed on, and exacerbated our homelessness crisis.
I thank the President for listening to me and affirming the importance of housing to this country. Including housing in reconciliation has become a top priority for housing and nonprofit organizations that are speaking out on the need to develop affordable housing, support young people to purchase a home, repair public housing, and provide people a safe and decent home. I look forward to continuing to work with the President, his administration, my colleagues in the House and Senate, and America’s housing advocates on enacting once-in-a-generation investments in our nation’s housing programs.”