Chuck Schumer: “today I rise to introduce mine and Senator Gordon Smith's bill, The Affordable Housing Preservation Act of 2006. Our…”

“today I rise to introduce mine and Senator Gordon Smith's bill, The Affordable Housing Preservation Act of 2006. Our bill provides a solution to preserve federally assisted affordable multifamily housing. I want to thank all of our colleagues-- Senators Bond, Reed, Murray, and Sarbanes--for realizing the importance of this issue and agreeing to cosponsor our legislation. I have often said that few Federal programs have helped mothers and fathers keep their families together more than our low income and public housing programs. And while I always fight to make sure New York and the country at large gets all the money it can from Washington, frankly I am not the kind of elected official who believes that all government programs are equally good. But low income housing programs are some of the best things our government has ever done to help families, mothers, the elderly, and the disabled. Unfortunately--the current housing climate has reached a crisis point and the good that we are doing just is not enough anymore. Consider that in 2001, 95 million people--a whopping one third of the nation-- had housing problems: ranging from high cost burden, to overcrowding, to poor quality, or worse to homelessness. In the same year, 41 million people, 14.6 percent of the U.S. population, were without health insurance and 12 percent of all people in the U.S.--33.6 million--lacked food security. These are all interrelated.…”