Kemp Plans to Use Tax Code for Housing

Former Rep. Jack Kemp (R-N.Y.) today told Congress he plans to move quickly on plans to increase home ownership, especially among the poor, and said the tax code “can play a useful role in developing social policy.”

Kemp, nominated by President Bush to be secretary of Housing and Urban Development, also told his confirmation hearing before the Senate Banking Committee that homelessness “is a national tragedy of appalling proportions” and repeated the new Administration’s pledge for “full funding” for the McKinney Act, the key program to combat homelessness.

But as Kemp--who as a member of Congress voted against key bills on housing and the homeless--began to deliver his opening statement, a small group of advocates for the homeless disrupted the hearing, standing in the audience and denouncing federal cuts.

The demonstrators were quickly moved from the jammed committee room by security police. Five protesters were handcuffed and taken away.

“I wish they’d stayed and heard my remarks,” Kemp said after the five-minute disruption. Homelessness, he said, “is high, if not highest, on the agenda.”

Kemp was universally praised by committee members for his energy and intellect and his pledge to “be audacious . . . to try things.”

“We need to work together to provide a complete and effective safety net consisting of both public-private efforts that will provide not only basic shelter but also pave the way to jobs, permanent housing, health care and human dignity,” he said.

While saying he had not talked about programs or figures for HUD with either Bush or Office of Management and Budget head Richard G. Darman, Kemp did give the committee some ideas of directions he would move when--as it appears all but certain--he takes over HUD.

In particular, he suggested the use of the tax code--giving tax breaks or incentives--as a means of accomplishing his goals without new revenue.

“The tax code can play a useful role in developing social policy,” he said.