Melvin Watt: “Mr. Chairman, listening to the gentleman, one would think that the demolition-only program is a harmless program in the…”

“Mr. Chairman, listening to the gentleman, one would think that the demolition-only program is a harmless program in the Federal Government. It is absolutely true that the Bush administration has decided not to use the demolition-only authority that the statute gives them since 2003, but there are reasons that they have decided not to use the demolition-only authority. Between 1996 and 2003, administrations made 285 demolition-only grants to 127 public housing authorities that resulted in demolishing, demolishing, 56,755 housing units, affordable housing units, in this country. And the result was replacing less than half of those demolished housing units because we have had a net loss over that period of 30,000 affordable housing units. So the administration in its good wisdom decided that this was a program that was counterproductive, was contrary in fact to the original objective of the HOPE VI program, and discontinued the use of the authority that it had because it didn't think it was a good program.”