Rick Lazio: “If we look over here at this diagram, we see over time, since 1992, how the average income in public housing has…”

“If we look over here at this diagram, we see over time, since 1992, how the average income in public housing has dramatically declined. This is not unique to one city or one community around the country. It is a generalization across the country that the median income for people living in public housing has dropped precipitously. We see right over here from about 1980 until today the average median income in public housing has dropped from about 35 percent to about 17 percent, and as we see this line plummet down, so too could we track the downward trend in many low-income communities that have public housing around them; so too could we track the fact that basic services have been fleeing the low-income neighborhoods. The gentlewoman from California was bemoaning the fact that there were not basic services. Mr. Chairman, the reason there is not basic services is because we have forced out the working poor from these very neighborhoods.”