[Pages S1666-S1667]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS

      By Mr. REED: (for himself and Ms. Lummis):
  S. 964. A bill to amend title I of the National Housing Act to 
increase the loan limits and clarify that property improvement loans 
may be used for construction of accessory dwelling units; to the 
Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
  Mr. REED. Mr. President, today I am introducing the Property 
Improvement and Manufactured Housing Loan Modernization Act with 
Senator Lummis. Our bipartisan bill would help more families purchase 
an affordable home and maintain our housing supply by strengthening the 
Federal Housing Administration, FHA, Title I Loan Program.
  Like its better known title II sister program, FHA Title I expands 
access to housing and boosts affordability for families by insuring 
private market loans. However, title I is targeted towards two 
underserved portions of our housing market--manufactured homes and 
property improvement.
  For decades, title I has enabled families to access stable, 
affordable housing, while also helping maintain our Nation's housing 
stock. Indeed, manufactured homes are the largest source of 
unsubsidized affordable housing in the country, and property 
improvement loans help prevent more single-family homes and apartments 
from falling into disrepair and out of our housing supply.
  These loans should be an important tool in helping to close our 
nationwide housing shortage, which the Brookings Institution estimates 
at nearly 5 million homes. However, outdated loan limits and statutory 
restrictions have turned title I from an effective program into a 
missed opportunity.
  From the mid-1980s through the early 1990s, lenders offered 15,000 to 
25,000 title I manufactured home loans each year. But in 2021, only 
three loans were issued. Similarly, lenders have gone from making more 
than 70,000 title I property improvement loans annually in the 1990s to 
making fewer than 1,000 in 2022. That is a 99-percent drop in loan 
volume or in other words, as many as 99,000 fewer homes being bought, 
preserved, and included in our housing stock each year.
  The Property Improvement and Manufactured Housing Loan Modernization 
Act would refurbish title I and return it to our housing toolbox. It 
would expand loan limits and terms for all title I loans--making the 
program fit market demand and needs. Perhaps more importantly, the bill 
would finally allow FHA to index property improvement loans for 
inflation and expand the data it uses to set manufactured home loan 
limits, ensuring title I will remain a crucial tool as home costs rise 
in future years.
  Finally, our legislation makes accessible dwelling units, ADUs, which 
are small housing units added to a single-family property, eligible for 
title I financing. This small addition to title I will make the program 
an even more powerful home-creation program than it was during its 
prior peak years and will particularly help families who want to 
provide a safe, comfortable place for aging parents or young adult 
children to live.
  Collectively, these improvements would help more families own a home, 
remain in homes they have spent decades in, and find an affordable 
place to live. I urge my colleagues to cosponsor this bill and support 
its passage.
                                 ______
                                 
      By Mr. REED: (for himself, Ms. Collins, Mr. Van Hollen, Ms. 
        Cortez Masto, Ms. Smith, and Ms. Klobuchar):
  S. 965. A bill to strengthen the United States Interagency Council on 
Homelessness; to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
  Mr. REED. Mr. President, I am pleased to join Senator Collins and 
Senators Van Hollen, Cortez Masto, Smith, and Klobuchar in introducing 
legislation that would permanently reauthorize the U.S. Interagency 
Council on Homelessness, the Council or USICH.
  The Council was established during the Reagan administration as part 
of the landmark McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act of 1987. Over 
the last three and a half decades, it has led and coordinated the 
Federal Government's response to homelessness. In 2009, the Homeless 
Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing, HEARTH, Act, 
which I authored along with Senator Collins, expanded the Council's 
role, allowing it to work with public, nonprofit, and private 
stakeholders to develop a national strategic plan to end homelessness. 
Despite its minimal budget and small staff, the Council has helped 
guide Federal, State, and local stakeholders in deploying their 
resources in a smart, effective, and coordinated fashion. The results 
have been evident. In the decade after USICH published its first plan, 
overall homelessness declined 9 percent. Family and veteran 
homelessness declined significantly, as well, with the total numbers 
dropping nearly 30 percent and 50 percent respectively. In fact, the 
Council has been able to help 85 communities and 3 States effectively 
end veteran homelessness.
  Despite these successes, homelessness has persisted, and skyrocketing 
housing prices since 2020 have brought a new surge in homelessness. The 
Department of Housing and Urban Development's 2024 Annual Homelessness 
Assessment Report to Congress found that, ``[o]n a single night in 
January 2024, 771,480 people were experiencing homelessness in the 
United States.'' This is a record number of Americans experiencing 
homelessness since the count began. The face of homelessness--which 
individuals lack a safe, stable home--is also changing. Families with 
children had the largest increase in homelessness from 2023 to 2024. 
Indeed, nearly 150,000 children were experiencing homelessness on a 
single night last year. This staggering increase in homelessness is 
happening across the country.
  USICH helps us meet this challenge by guiding how its 19 Federal 
member Agencies deploy and leverage their resources with non-Federal 
partners to help communities effectively address homelessness. We know 
that smart, coordinated investments in programs that address 
homelessness and increase affordable housing pay additional dividends. 
The National Alliance to End Homelessness has found that taxpayers pay 
an average of $35,578 per year on each chronically homeless individual, 
while ``based on 22 different studies from across the country, 
providing permanent supportive housing to chronically homeless people 
creates net savings of $4,800 per person per year, through reduced 
spending on jails, hospitals, shelters, and other emergency services.'' 
In short, helping people avoid homelessness not only helps them, it 
also saves taxpayers money. USICH's coordinating work helps make our 
investments to address homelessness more informed and more effective.
  Indeed, the Council continues to prove that the government can work 
and save money in the process. I thank HousingWorks RI for its support, 
and I urge my colleagues to join us in permanently authorizing USICH.
                                 ______
                                 
      By Mr. REED (for himself and Mrs. Britt):
  S. 970. A bill to establish a pilot program to improve the family 
self-sufficiency program, and for other purposes; to the Committee on 
Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
  Mr. REED. Mr. President, today I am reintroducing the Helping More 
Families Save Act with Senator Britt. This bipartisan legislation would 
help more families in HUD-assisted housing build savings and improve 
their financial security by creating a pilot program for Family Self-
Sufficiency, FSS, universal escrow accounts.
  The FSS Program was established under the National Affordable Housing 
Act of 1990 to help low-income families boost savings and improve their 
professional, educational, and financial

[[Page S1667]]

standing. In 2018, I worked with then-Senator Roy Blunt to expand the 
program to cover more households. Today, millions of public housing 
residents, Housing Choice Voucher Program participants, and residents 
of project-based rental assistance, PBRA, housing are eligible for FSS.
  FSS provides two key tools for its participants. First, households 
work with FSS coordinators to develop long-term financial, 
professional, or educational goals. FSS coordinators also help connect 
participants with resources, training, and employment opportunities. 
Second, the program encourages FSS families to save by providing them 
with an interest-bearing escrow account. Participants who increase 
their incomes deposit a portion of their additional earnings into their 
escrow account instead of paying higher rent, as is typically required 
under federally subsidized housing programs. Upon graduation from the 
Program, families can use their escrowed savings to pay for job-related 
expenses, move to private market housing, buy a home, or save for the 
future.
  After more than 30 years, FSS has become a proven financial 
independence program. For example, in 2022, 34 percent of FSS graduates 
no longer needed Federal rental assistance within 1 year of leaving 
FSS, and nearly 10 percent of graduates were ultimately able to 
purchase their own home. On average, FSS participants with escrow 
savings graduated from the program with approximately $10,000 in their 
accounts. This is no small sum, and it helps HUD-assisted families 
strengthen their financial stability and move towards greater economic 
independence.
  Despite the program's success and broad eligibility, program 
participation was effectively capped at about 70,000 enrollees in 2022 
simply due to a lack of Federal funding for the required FSS 
coordinators.
  The Helping More Families Save Act would help more Americans access 
the program by creating a new universal escrow pilot. Under the bill, 
public housing agencies, PHAs, and PBRA property owners could offer 
5,000 additional households escrow accounts identical to those under 
the current FSS Program without having to wait for an FSS coordinator 
to be funded by the Federal Government. PHA and PBRA property owners 
would not be required to offer coordinator services to these new 
participants, although we expect many will work to offer counseling and 
support on their own or with outside partners. Moreover, we expect that 
this pilot will show that those enrolled in the program will be 
successful and make financially sound decisions.
  Our pilot program would help more low-income families improve their 
financial security, achieve economic independence, and possibly even 
purchase their own homes, all with minimal cost to the Federal 
Government.
  This is a commonsense, bipartisan proposal that would help more 
Americans pull themselves out of poverty. It is a win for families, the 
Federal budget, and our economy. I thank Senator Britt for coleading 
this legislation and Compass Working Capital and LISC for their 
support. I urge our colleagues to cosponsor the Helping More Families 
Save Act and support its passage.

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