Congressman Cleaver's Housing Bill to Help Low-Income Families Obtains Committee Approval

Statement

Congressman Emanuel Cleaver, II's (D-MO) bipartisan housing voucher bill, H.R. 5793, The Housing Choice Voucher Mobility Demonstration Act of 2018, was unanimously approved by the House Committee on Financial Services yesterday. This bill will help low-income families move up the economic ladder and reduce barriers that keep multiple generations in poverty.

The bill authorizes a Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) demonstration program to enable public housing agencies to form a regional consortia to help families who participate in the Housing Choice Voucher Program move to lower-poverty areas within the region. Currently, in 35 of the 100 largest metro areas, the Housing Choice Voucher Program is administered by ten or more agencies. H.R. 5793 will allow public housing agencies to better coordinate and enable families to move from one neighborhood to another.

"What we have done with this bill is removed barriers. The only difference between people who have, and people who don't have, is opportunity. If we give people an opportunity, they are more than willing to seize it," said Congressman Cleaver. "I know this from personal experience. If it had not been for my father moving us out of public housing and into our home and giving us a better opportunity in life, I would not be here today. I'd like to thank Congressman Duffy for working with me across party lines on this bill," Cleaver continued.

Harvard University economists have found that children who move to higher opportunity neighborhoods increase their chances of success. More specifically, a recent study found that children who were able to use housing vouchers to move to low-poverty areas were 32 percent more likely to attend college and earned 31 percent more a year than their counterparts in lower income neighborhoods. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) estimates that this demonstration project could allow over 7,000 families to move to areas of opportunity.

The Housing and Insurance Subcommittee Chairman, Sean Duffy (R-WI), joined Ranking Member Cleaver as co-author of H.R. 5793. This is the third bipartisan Housing bill which passed Committee authored by Congressman Cleaver. Earlier this year, Congressmen Cleaver and Duffy successfully passed H.R. 4258, the Family Self Sufficiency Act. Last Congress, Congressman Cleaver and Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO) secured passage of H.R. 3700, the Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act. This bill was one of the largest sweeping reforms of our nation's housing programs in the last two decades designed to improve and create additional efficiency in our housing programs for low-income families.

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