House Bill Raises Bar for Public Housing

The House of Representatives passed a measure Friday that would raise the income threshold for some public housing units, a proposal the Clinton administration said could displace 3 million poor people.

Republicans said their plan to allot a share of housing for working people making up to $40,000 a year would empower them to improve their lives and encourage others to find jobs. It also would provide more economically mixed and safer housing, they said.

But Democrats decried the measure as an abandonment of the poor. Housing Secretary Andrew Cuomo called it “repugnant” and said it warranted a White House veto.

The measure was attached to a $94-billion fiscal 1999 spending bill for housing, veterans, environmental and space programs slated for a House vote next week.

The Senate passed its version of the veterans and housing spending bill Friday without the new housing measure.

New York Republican Rick Lazio, the measure’s sponsor, said talks were underway with key senators to try to overcome their objections.

“It is a morally bankrupt position to say that simply because you don’t work you have a superior claim on housing assistance relative to someone who is earning the minimum wage,” Lazio told reporters after the measure passed, 230 to 181.

The plan would allow up to 65% of public housing tenants to be “working poor” who make up to 80% of an area’s median income. It also gives housing authorities economic incentives to take working people first.

It also would make able-bodied people who get rental assistance do eight hours of community service per month or take job training.

Democrats called the plan a cruel effort to clean up public housing by replacing the poor--including children and the elderly--with people who have the resources to get their own housing financing.

“You have a long waiting list in this nation to get into public housing. If you start to go to higher-income people on the list without having some recourse for lower-income people, you literally would leave lower-income people on the list forever,” Cuomo said this week.

The overall bill for housing, veterans and environmental programs also was expected to draw fire from the White House for various other reasons. They include cuts in the AmeriCorps program, which offers college tuition assistance in return for community service, the Superfund hazardous waste cleanup program and programs to fight climate change caused by industrial emissions.

The White House did not threaten to veto the Senate version of the bill but complained that it slighted some of President Clinton’s priorities.

In a move to please the administration, the Senate voted to raise the limits on Federal Housing Administration single-family loans. The bill raises the loan limit in high-cost areas to $197,000 from $170,000, and in low-cost areas to $109,000 from $86,000.

The House bill has a matching provision.