Nation IN BRIEF : NEW YORK : $1.2-Billion Housing Program Disclosed

Henry G. Cisneros, secretary of Housing and Urban Development, announced a $1.2-billion housing program that will be the first to draw on a major pension fund, and criticized the Senate for scuttling President Clinton’s $16.4-billion economic stimulus program. Speaking to the U.S. Conference of Mayors, meeting in New York, Cisneros called the program “a substantial new direction for the American economy.” Cisneros and Steven Coyle, a senior AFL-CIO official, announced the plan to invest $660 million of the labor group’s pension funds in a five-year program to build housing and job-creating commercial projects in 30 of the nation’s largest cities. The officials said the AFL-CIO’s commitment would be supplemented by $550 million from public and private sources.