Rick Lazio

some of the most important work that is being done with the homeless right now involves supportive services and the type of counseling.

we would suggest that people resolve these issues the way they do in nonpublic housing, informally, working together, consensually, hopefully; if not, using whatever tools they have. There are people who have been involved in rent strikes…

In fact, Mr. Chairman, this is about building that type of synergy. This is about ensuring that we reconnect, reconnect people with their civic duty, reconnect the working class with the people that are unemployed. We are not saying that…

we are going to spend over half of the additional spending in this budget deal on low-income housing. In addition, we spent over $1 billion on the homeless, which we will again.

If I could reclaim my time only because we are so limited, I only have less than 5 minutes now, one of my major problems with this, of course, is that it suggests that somehow we ignore the fact that people who are in public housing are…

If I could just reclaim my time, the example that I have that has been given to me, supplied to me by, I believe this is from HUD itself, says as a condition of living in Earl Village residents enrolled in the self-sufficiency program will…

In that program people are required to volunteer at least 10 hours per month to assistant programs ranging from early childhood education to parenting to after-school tutoring to elementary and secondary school students to mentoring and…

Will be required to volunteer at least 10 hours per month to assistant programs ranging from early childhood education, parenting, and the various programs that we have.

the issue is not just the amount of poor people, because we have quadrupled our spending in housing since 1980. This is not just about money. This is about basic management, about creating the right incentives, about ensuring that we have…

I believe does affect those activities that threaten the health, safety, or right to peaceful enjoyment of the premises. There are incidents, however, that may fall slightly below that threshold or may be questions of controversy as to…

If the gentleman will yield, certainly whenever the gentleman asks for me to try and enter into a discussion to try and see if we cannot find common ground, I would be happy to accommodate that. Let me also add that in order that we deal…

Mr. Chairman, this issue has been fully vented by this House, I would suggest, it has been discussed in committee, in general the concept of community service, and now the gentleman from North Carolina offers this amendment which requires…

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…

I just wanted to note, because I think there was some confusion in the presentation that we accepted the gentlewoman's amendment in the bill. It was completely the intent of the committee, it is the understanding of the committee that it…

the CBO, Congressional Budget Office, estimate as I understand it speaks to not just this one issue of community service and community work or not just the self-sufficiency program but the vast panoply of programs that would be implemented…

the most cost effective thing that we can do is to move people to self-sufficiency. The goal here is to do just that, to improve neighborhoods, especially low-income neighborhoods and public housing areas and to get people, if we can, to…

this Member, and I believe this side of the aisle, strongly supports child care, additional funding for child care, and believes it was inherent in the provisions of the bill as to qualified activities. But I am happy to clarify this…

I am telling the gentleman that I cannot accept that amendment, because I believe that people on the outside are asked to actually do more; that there is flexibility in this bill for people who are caregivers to work close to home. I think…

I would say the gentleman's characterization of it being a voluntary work requirement, the bill calls it ``community service,'' and that is, in fact, what it is. It applies to all people who receive the benefits of public housing under…

the provision would apply to all able-bodied adults who are receiving the benefit of public housing and who have the capacity to give back to the community. Those individuals would be asked to contribute no less than 2 hours of community…

Mr. Chairman, we have before us the manager's amendment that speaks to certain technical changes and substantive changes that would improve and in some cases expand the bill before us. This manager's amendment speaks to certain technical…

what we are saying is that all people who receive the benefit of public housing who are able-bodied and who are not exempted because of age, who are not exempted because of disability, who are not exempted because of education, vocational…

It is about whether we are going to continue to punish people who are working. It is about whether we are going to side with the drug dealers, with the criminals, with the abusers of the system or whether we are going to side with the…

I just found it curious, Mr. Chairman, that there is a discussion about alternatives now when this bill is on the floor and ready for action, the son of status quo that is now being discussed or the status quo substitute that is being…

Mr. Chairman, I will say, once again, the same voices in defense of what we have now, the status quo, are opposing this bill. We had 100 Democrats who stood up last year for change and reform to recognize the failure of the system. What we…