Frank Melville Supportive Housing Investment Act of 2009

I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank Representative Grayson for his graciousness in allowing me to control the time on this bill.

As he mentioned, this bill is the Frank Melville Supportive Housing Investment Act of 2009. This bill is a reauthorization and improvement of our Nation's existing section 811 supportive housing program. This House passed a nearly identical bill last year. It unfortunately didn't get past the United States Senate. So we reintroduced it and hope to see it through the full extent of the process this year.

Before I talk a little bit about the underlying bill and the importance of the issue which it addresses, let me thank a few people. First, Chairman Frank and Subcommittee Chairwoman Waters have been instrumental over the last 7 years in helping us bring this very important bill to the floor, as well as Ranking Member Capito on the Republican side. But really the largest thanks is to my cosponsor in this legislation, Representative Biggert of Illinois. She has, for the full extent of her career, been a supporter of supportive housing, which I will describe as our Nation's most important housing program for individuals with physical and mental disabilities. I'm really honored to have been able to cosponsor this legislation with Representative Biggert and am very pleased that it's back before the House today.

Mr. Speaker, what is the 811 program? The 811 program is this Nation's supportive housing program that allows for Federal funds to be used to build supportive housing for individuals with physical and mental disabilities. It is a program which has meant a great deal to an unfortunately limited number of individuals that have benefited from it.

What is supportive housing? Supportive housing, very simply, is housing for individuals that have certain disabilities that allows them to live independently on their own leading full, productive lives in the communities with a small amount of community support around them. A unit of supportive housing, either on site or in the community, will have connected to it the job skills, the social work, the medication- adherence individuals and support services that are necessary for people that have complex physical or complex mental illness to be able to live on their own. These people can live in the community; they just need a little bit of help to do it.

The measure of this government, the measure of this Nation is how we treat those amongst us who, through no fault of their own, have been born with a certain illness--whether it be mental or physical--that doesn't give them the access to the apparatus of opportunity the rest of us have. Supportive housing, which gives that fundamental life building block--a roof over your head, a bed to sleep in at night--to those individuals is one of the most important things that we can do as a compassionate Nation.

The problem is that over the course of the last 5 to 10 years, the 811 program just has not been working. HUD tells us that there are 1.3 million individuals with disabilities in this country who are living in substandard housing. The 811 program, over the last several years, has only built about a thousand new units despite all of the resources that it has. And it is taking right now upwards of 6 years for a supportive housing project funded with 811 dollars to move from the application stage to the completion stage. This is unacceptable. Representative Biggert has been a great spokesperson for this for years, and the culmination of her work and the advocacy community's work is this legislation.

This bill fixes the 811 program as well as reauthorizes it. It does this in a number of ways. First, it takes all of the vouchers that have traditionally been used to fund individuals who are looking for supportive housing, it takes those vouchers, which have been very inefficiently administered by the

811 program, and moves them to the broader section 8 program. The section 8 program is much better equipped to track these vouchers and make sure they are actually being used by people with disabilities. That has been a big problem through that program within the section 811 program.

That money that is now freed up by moving those vouchers over into the section 8 program is now going to be used to build new units. That's really what we need to do here. We need to build more capacity in the system--1.3 million living in inappropriate living; we need more of it for them.

It also will use that money in more creative ways. Instead of just building a full apartment complex with supportive housing in it, it's now going to work with developers who might have affordable housing projects currently underway to have them build in to that complex two or three or four or five units of supportive housing to allow for more scattered site housing throughout the community leveraging existing affordable housing projects to build in scattered site supportive housing projects.

And lastly, it cuts a lot of the red tape and bureaucracy that has restrained applications from moving forward, chiefly by allowing State affordable housing agencies to do a lot of the bureaucratic work that right now is being performed by Housing and Urban Development here in Washington, D.C. We think that through the passage of this Act, we can triple the number of supportive housing units that are built across the country with this 811 program. And I think by doing so, we will do justice by the individual whose name is on this Act.

Mr. Speaker, this Act is called the Frank Melville Supportive Housing Investment Act. Frank Melville was a constituent of mine. He and his widowed wife, Ellen, started the Melville Charitable Trust which funds much of the affordable housing and supportive housing advocacy work in the Northeast and throughout this country. Frank Melville is no longer with us, but this bill--which we hope to pass today and bring to the Senate for its consideration--does justice to his legacy.

I commend this bill to the House for passage. I think it is going to do so much to live up to the initial promise of this Nation's commitment to individuals with physical and mental disabilities.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, just briefly to close. In Connecticut during the course of my work in the State legislature, a lot of us would occasionally don a button that said ``keep the promise.'' That was a reminder to us that when we deinstitutionalized those with mental illness, that we had a promise to them to make sure that they had humane and responsible housing in the community. This bill I think does just that. It helps us keep that promise to those people living with mental and physical disability that we are going to find them appropriate and supportive housing in the community.

I thank Representative Posey for his support and Representative Biggert for her advocacy.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (S. 1481) to amend section 811 of the Cranston- Gonzalez National Affordable Housing Act to improve the program under such section for supportive housing for persons with disabilities.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks on this legislation and to insert extraneous material thereon.

I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I am proud to stand here today with my colleagues in support of S. 1481, the Frank Melville Supportive Housing Investment Act of 2009. This is a reauthorization and improvement upon the existing section 811 supportive housing program. Passing this bill today would send the legislation to the President's desk. I think this is the third time we've had this bill before the House over the last 4 years. It would pave the way to provide thousands more affordable housing units each year across this country to low-income persons with physical and mental disabilities. Importantly, the bill before us today costs the same amount as the existing 811 program. It just makes some very important improvements to efficiently expand the use of these important dollars.

That is why I want to first just thank all the people who have brought this bill before us today, Senators Menendez and Johanns in the Senate as well as the ranking member of the full committee in the Senate, Senator Dodd; here in the House, the chairman of the full committee, Representative Frank and Representatives Capito and Biggert for their tireless advocacy on the issue of supportive housing, as well as really hundreds of staff both on the inside of this building and those advocates who have worked on this issue for a number of years.

And lastly to the Melville family, this bill is titled the Frank Melville Supportive Housing Investment Act. Frank Melville, who unfortunately passed away a few years ago, and his surviving wife, Allen, created something called the Melville Charitable Trust; and that trust today is one of the primary funders of supportive housing advocacy around the Northeast and around the Nation. And I think this legislation, should it find its way into passage, will be a fitting testament to Frank Melville's legacy.

Madam Speaker, the 811 program is the primary program for the development of supportive housing around the country. The Department of Housing and Urban Development estimates that around this Nation, there are about 1.3 million individuals, nonelderly disabled, people with physical disabilities or sometimes very severe mental illness, who are living in substandard housing. Supportive housing is a cost-effective means to provide those individuals with an ability to thrive independently. They are housing units, sometimes built together, sometimes done on a scattered-site basis, that are partnered with a modicum of support services, sometimes transportation help, sometimes medication adherence, that allows them to live independently.

It's the right thing to do for them, and it's the right thing to do for the government. It saves us billions of dollars. Because often, especially with respect to the individuals who have severe mental illness, the alternative is for those people to live in institutional settings, whether it be in hospitals or in jails. For those with physical disabilities, it is often a very, very difficult life to live in nonsupportive housing units.

The problem is we are not building enough of these units. Over the last few years we've built less than 1,000 across the country with 811 dollars. And it's sometimes taking up to 6 years from the point of application to the point of completion when you're dealing with an 811 project.

This bill, by reordering the way in which we run the program, would triple the number of housing units that we can build through the 811 program across country. It does this by providing better accountability and cost efficiency to the program, by transferring 811 vouchers to the larger section 8 program. And this frees up funds to support efforts to leverage 811 capital dollars with low-income tax credits, private dollars, and State partnerships. That's what this is really all about, trying to take our Federal dollars and leverage them with other sources of funding, whether it be through State and municipal funds or whether it be through private dollars, which I think is really the future of supportive housing development.

It also makes a number of other important efficiencies by allowing States and State housing agencies to do much of the bureaucratic paperwork that sometimes bogs down these applications.

Years ago, Madam Speaker, when this country and States across the Nation made the decision to close down our institutions that housed individuals with mental and physical disabilities, we made a promise to them. We told them that we'd find them new housing out in the communities, better opportunities for those individuals to live on their own. We haven't lived up to that promise over the years.

And in Connecticut, those of us who have worked on this issue for years, we often wear a badge when we're working on this issue in the State Capitol that says, Keep the Promise. This legislation, I believe, thanks to the great work of my Republican colleagues and Senators who worked so hard on it, is a step towards doing just that.

Again, I'd like to thank all of the people who have made this prospective final passage possible.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield as much time as he may consume to the chairman of the full committee and a primary proponent of this legislation and the legislation that previously passed respective to the 202 program, Representative Barney Frank.

Madam Speaker, I would like to thank, again, Representative Frank for his generosities, despite my leaving the committee. And again, to Representative Biggert in particular, for her advocacy on this issue over the years.

For people that are born with physical and mental disabilities, what I think we strive to do as a society is give them a chance at independent life, give them a chance to succeed just like everyone else. And there is nothing more fundamental to that success than a roof over your head, than a place to live and a place that has some appropriate supports, recognizing the challenges that you face. This bill, where we can potentially triple the number of supportive housing units that we build across the country without spending an additional dime, is both, I think, a compassionate response to those people and a responsible way to run this program.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to express my strong support for H.R. 1675, the Frank Melville Supportive Housing Act. I commend Representatives Christopher Murphy (CT) and Judy Biggert (IL) for introducing this bill and I also thank my colleagues on the Financial Services Committee for passing this bill and bringing it to the floor this week.

Mr. Speaker, as you know, this legislation makes several important changes to the Section 811 Supportive Housing for Persons with Disabilities program. This bill is strongly supported by a wide array of disability advocacy groups, in particular the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD), a group of 100 national disability organizations which includes The Arc of the United States, United Cerebral Palsy, the National Disability Rights Network, the American Network of Community Options and Resources, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, Easter Seals, United Spinal Association, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and the Brain Injury Association.

John Chafee--the late Senator from Rhode Island and a true champion for disabled Americans--always made it clear that ``your abilities, not your disabilities, will determine your future.'' As a recipient of the John Chafee Leadership in Public Policy Award in 2002, I am always mindful of his vision.

I have long advocated for public housing programs, particularly for those that would benefit those with disabilities. Disabled Americans, like all Americans, deserve equal access to fundamental resources such as housing. In particular, I worked to ensure that vouchers were not lost when disabled people moved.

An estimated 50,000 non-elderly, disabled vouchers were funded by Congress between FY 1997 and FY 2001. Funding for these vouchers is estimated at $250-$275 million annually. Approximately 400 Public Housing Authorities (PHAs) administer these vouchers.

These incremental vouchers for non-elderly, disabled individuals and families were intended to replace housing for non-elderly people with disabilities lost as a result of the ``elderly only'' designation of public and assisted housing since 1993.

The CCD Housing Task Force estimated that the loss due to this designation has approached 500,000 units since 1992, including 100,000 public housing units and 400,000 assisted housing units.

To correct HUD's misinterpretation of Congressional intent, the House of Representatives has gone on the record on numerous occasions since 2000. Congress has clarified the policy that ``turnover'' vouchers should continue to be provided to certain people with disabilities as provided by Congress.

Language was included both in advisory reports for appropriations bills, and following continued inaction by HUD, actual bill language that was included in Conference reports signed by the President.

It was not until February 2005 that HUD issued guidance to PHAs detailing their ongoing obligation to ensure that these vouchers remain targeted upon turnover to the disabled population Congress intended.

Therefore, we've been fortunate to finally make ``real'' progress for disabled Americans. Through efforts in Congress, including my work on the House Appropriations Committee, each of the Fiscal Year 2008 and 2009 Omnibus Appropriations bills included $30 million for new incremental vouchers to be specifically targeted towards disabled and homeless veteran populations.

This will insure that existing vouchers for those populations are not rolled over into ``mainstream'' voucher programs that primarily benefit older Americans.

This legislation greatly reforms the Section 811 program, including new programs to remove outdated regulatory barriers and better track the status of vouchers that are currently in use. By doing so, this bill greatly expands on recent progress that the Congress has made with regard to our nation's housing programs.

Again, Mr. Speaker, similar legislation was unanimously passed by the House under Suspension of the Rules in September 2008 and I am happy to see that the current Congress has made it a priority to see this legislation become law.

Madam Speaker, I support this legislation substantively. I'm also glad we're bringing it up because it helps dispel a couple of unduly negative views about us. We've just seen a great example of bipartisan cooperation. Yes, things have gotten very partisan. Some things should be partisan. More have become that way than should be.

But the public has an excessive view of the extent to which partisanship dominates, because when we have cooperation between the parties and agreement it's not news. And while we have some differences, the gentlewoman from West Virginia as the ranking member of the Housing Subcommittee and the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Waters) as the chair did a lot of constructive work together, brought forward a number of pieces of legislation. Not all of them survived the last minute rush. I am hopeful under the leadership of the gentlewoman from Illinois those areas where we had some agreement, there were some that remain, that we will be able to move them. So it does show that people believe that there is more partisanship than there is, or that there are no examples of cooperation between the parties, as there are in this case.

There is a view that politics is a hard and nasty business and that people are vindictive, and this is proof that that's not true.

Now, the gentleman from Connecticut abandoned our committee, left for greener committee pastures. But that did not prevent us from enthusiastically helping him to pass this bill, and he deserves a great deal of credit for it. It is an idea, I believe, that came to him from constituents, and that's another good thing to know; that there were people in his district who were interested in this. And he brought it forward and worked very hard and made the necessary adjustments, as you always do in the process.

So this speaks very well of the gentleman from Connecticut and of the process, that people in the country who have some good ideas can bring them to us and they can be shaped, and this is done.

Finally, I am very pleased that this will lead to, I hope, more construction of rental units. A common problem that we've had for many years in our housing area was to overstress home ownership for people who needed government assistance, and under-performed with regard to building rental units. No one thing solved it all, but this is a step forward towards the construction of rental units in a way that will increase the stock of housing.

And we ought to remember when we talk about providing homes for people who need assistance, ownership and having a home are not the same word. Home ownership is a part of home, in general. Rental housing is also an important part.

I thank the gentleman from Connecticut and the gentlewoman from West Virginia and others for letting us take that step forward together.

Madam Speaker, today I rise as a Republican cosponsor of the House version of this legislation, and I urge my colleagues to support the bill.

I would like to thank my colleague, Congressman Murphy of Connecticut, for all his hard work, and Ranking Member Capito of West Virginia for all that she has done on this bill.

Also our Senate counterparts, Senator Menendez of New Jersey and Senator Mike Johanns of Nebraska, for their hard work on this legislation.

Section 811 is the only Federal housing program that serves non- elderly, low-income people with disabilities. It is the only Federal program that funds housing and vouchers for people with disabilities who seek to live as independent members of the community.

Unfortunately, the program hasn't been reformed for over 15 years and, due to inefficiencies, has not served as many people who are disabled as it could. That's why, for the past 4 years, Congressman Murphy and I have worked to reform the section 811 program. The House passed our bill, H.R. 5772, by voice vote in September 2008, and in July 2009, the House passed H.R. 1675 with overwhelming bipartisan support by a recorded vote of 376-51.

The bill under consideration today closely mirrors both House-passed bills. S. 1481 is critical to the goal of increasing the number of affordable units for people with disabilities. By better aligning this section 811 program with other Federal, State, and local funding resources, it allows nonprofit sponsors to more easily leverage additional financing, thereby maximizing Federal dollars.

It streamlines the application process and permits nonprofit and for- profit entities to partner on Section 811 projects. The bill also limits appropriations to the Federal fiscal year 2010 level and does not create any new Federal programs.

I would like to once again thank my colleague from Connecticut, Congressman Murphy, and thank Chairman Frank and Ranking Member Bachus, Chairwoman Waters and Ranking Member Capito, as well as their staffs, for helping us with this legislation.

Of course, I cannot forget to thank one of my constituents from Tinley Park, Illinois, Tony Paulauski, the executive director of Arc of Illinois, who testified in 2008 before our committee about the needs for these reforms. On a similar note, I would also like to thank the wonderful people in Illinois that work for Trinity Services and Cornerstone Services, as well as all those volunteers, parents, and other members of the community who have reached out to express their support of this legislation.

Madam Speaker, this is a commonsense bill that modernizes an important Federal housing program that hasn't been updated, and I would urge my colleagues to support it.