WHERE THE CANDIDATES STAND ON / Housing and Homelessness

Background: The 1990 census reported that more than 228,000 people were homeless in the United States--nearly 49,000 of them in California--and admitted that it had not counted everyone. Activists contend the census grossly underestimated the problem. In the meantime, housing costs have skyrocketed. The median price for a single-family home in Los Angeles reached $222,540 in April. In 1990, the median rent in Los Angeles County was $626 a month.

President Bush gears his plans toward stimulating homeownership. He proposes spending $3 billion in fiscal year 1993 to help residents of public housing buy their homes. He advocates permitting first-time home buyers to use their IRAs as down payments without tax penalty and giving first-time buyers a temporary tax credit. He urges relaxing environmental regulations on the theory that it would lower housing costs. He proposes spending $50 million “to reach mentally ill homeless persons who are unable to participate in transitional housing and unwilling to go to emergency shelters.”

Patrick J. Buchanan has not commented specifically about housing or homeless policies.

Bill Clinton would give federally owned housing, including that on closed military bases, to community groups to house the homeless. He would encourage residents of public housing to buy their homes. He says federal funding for low-income housing should be restored to 1980 levels over a four-year period and that money should be directed toward local nonprofit organizations.

Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr. says every American has a right to shelter. He says the United States should provide loan guarantees to its own citizens so they can buy homes. He suggests training those who live in blighted neighborhoods to fix up the empty buildings around them as places to live.