Martin Sabo: “That is very crucial for 2 reasons: one, so that the residents have some advance knowledge that their status may change…”

“That is very crucial for 2 reasons: one, so that the residents have some advance knowledge that their status may change, and also so the local governments may know that the status of buildings are going to change so that there is some potential for negotiating, maybe even negotiating change of ownership. And I had one big project where they were able to work out a nonprofit ownership of a building where the owner wanted to refinance so they could continue as low-income housing. And so I just think this is a very important amendment, and let me add that it is one part of dealing with what is a growing problem in our country, and that is the lack of affordable housing. Clearly the expansion of vouchers helps, and I strongly support the Stokes amendment to add more vouchers. But we have a problem that goes beyond that in our area in Minnesota, and that is that we have very, very low vacancy rates, and the problem is that people lose their vouchers, and there is no place to go. We desperately in this country need to build more housing that is available for low-income people. The vouchers are good, but, if there is no housing to use them with, they fail their purpose.”