Today Mayor Levar M. Stoney joined mayors across the country in calling on Congress to fully fund the federal government’s public housing obligations. There are over one million households across the nation in public housing and adequate funding and a renewed commitment are essential to ensuring these residences are well-maintained, safe and healthy places to live.
Mayor Stoney
added his name to a letter being sent to Congressional leaders by the U.S.
Conference of Mayors. It reads, in part:
“The difficulty of finding an affordable
place to live becomes a greater challenge as cities continue to grow and become
more crowded. This has been exacerbated for years as the federal government has
decreased its investment in public housing. Cities have had to fill the gaps,
taking on the responsibility of addressing repairs and capital improvements… We
urge you to propose targeted increases to HUD’s public housing programs in
order to improve the lives and living conditions for all public housing
authority residents.”
“The simple
fact is that for decades, the federal government has let our public housing
residents down,” said Mayor Stoney. “We are committed to addressing the current
issues we face as a city, but we need our leaders in Washington to step up and
work with our nation’s mayors toward long term solutions.”
A copy of the
letter can be found here.
