(Host) The housing bill signed into law by President Bush this morning was inspired, in part, by a successful program in Vermont.
A key provision of the new law establishes the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, a concept first tried in Vermont 21 years ago.
VPR’s Ross Sneyd has more.
(Sneyd) Senator Bernie Sanders has thought for a long time that a national fund to promote affordable housing was a good idea.
He had experience with a local version of the concept when he was mayor of Burlington almost three decades ago. So he’s tried since 2001 – first in the House and then in the Senate – to do the same thing in Washington.
(Sanders) “It’s taken a while, but I am delighted we have finally gotten this passed. It’s a major step forward in the fight to make housing available to low income and moderate people.”
(Sneyd) Under the new law, the federal government will make grants totaling $500 million a year to states and cities.
The local governments will then award money to various nonprofit housing agencies or private developers to build affordable housing.
Sanders says the law should have a wide impact.
(Sanders) “It addresses the very serious problem of homelessness, of working people not being able to afford housing. And, b, it certainly is going to act as an economic stimulus because home construction, home rehabilitation creates good-paying jobs, which is certainly that our economy needs.”
(Sneyd) In 1987 when Congressman Peter Welch served in the Vermont Senate, he sponsored the bill that created the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board.
He says that’s one of his proudest achievements from his state legislative career and it helped Congress write the national bill.
(Welch) “I think the Vermont experience here was extremely helpful to us in Washington in promoting the basic proposition that a public-private partnership to provide housing for lower-income working families is a good thing and a doable thing.”
(Sneyd) The money is to be distributed to the states based on their population.
But Vermont’s congressional delegation helped to insert a provision that grants small states a minimum appropriation. So Vermont will get at least $3 million.
The new Housing Trust Fund was attached to a much larger bill that’s designed to address the ongoing mortgage crisis.
Welch says it’s ironic that a national problem became the way for the affordable housing initiative to become law.
(Welch) “In Washington there’s a lot of ways to get from here to there and you take your opportunities as they come along. The president was against this. … But he had essentially to accept it as part of the overall package.”
(Sneyd) The bill also will send $20 million to Vermont cities and towns. That money will be used to help people avoid foreclosure or delinquency.
For VPR News, I’m Ross Sneyd.