***** Reformatted. Please distribute. CLINTON/GORE ON AFFORDABLE HOUSING FOR ALL AMERICANS Home ownership and decent housing are an essential part of the American Dream. For too many Americans, that dream is unobtainable. Home prices have climbed out of the reach of middle class Americans. Affordable housing is often difficult to find for the working poor and urban residents. During the Reagan-Bush years, federal appropriations for low-income housing assistance has dropped dramatically -- and a massive housing shortage has been the result. Millions of Americans have been left homeless on our streets. We can reverse the trend by renewing our commitment to provide decent, safe and affordable homes to all Americans, and by forging a new alliance between federal officials, local community leaders, residents, and housing professionals. Bill Clinton and Al Gore have a plan to make home ownership more than a dream for millions of hard-working Americans. We can't afford to do without it. Make home ownership a reality * Raise the ceiling on FHA mortgage insurance to 95 percent of the price of a home in an average metropolitan area. The increase will enable half a million American families to buy their first homes. * Make home ownership possible for more Americans through federal support for low-income, long-term housing buyout programs, like Tampa's innovative Resurrection of Affordable Housing Program. Innovative packages of long-term subsidized financing encourage low-income buyers to purchase, restore and sell condemned housing. * Require HUD and the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division to aggressively enforce existing fair housing civil rights laws, to open up housing opportunities currently closed by discrimination. * Maintain the mortgage revenue bond program to make affordable housing a reality for thousands of Americans. Help America's renters * Strengthen the HOME program by giving more authority and flexibility to the state and local officials who administer it. Congress created HOME in 1990 to provide additional, quality rental housing for low-income Americans, but at the Administrations urging it limited localities choices in the use of HOME funds. * Permanently extend the Low Income Housing Tax Credit to spur private development of low- and very low-income housing; the credit helps produce more than 120,000 homes a year. Revitalize America through community development * Put neighborhoods at the center of our efforts to revitalize America by coordinating existing housing, education, employment training, health care, drug treatment and crime prevention programs. Target resources community by community to make the most of scarce federal housing funds. * Create a nationwide network of community development banks to provide small loans to low-income businesses and entrepreneurs in the inner cities. These banks will also invest in affordable housing, and help mobilize private lenders. * Create urban enterprise zones in stagnant inner cities, but only for companies willing to take responsibility. Business taxes and federal regulations will be minimized to provide incentives to set up shop. In return, companies will have to make jobs for local residents a top priority. * Ease the credit crunch in our inner cities by passing a more progressive Community Reinvestment Act to prevent redlining ; require financial institutions to invest in homes in their communities. New hope for low-income housing and public housing residents * Empower low-income housing residents to expel drug dealers and criminals from the buildings in which they live: encourage programs like the Chicago Housing Authorities Operation Clean Sweep, which has helped housing residents clean up buildings and kick out criminals; give tenants a greater role in building management to instill pride and responsibility, and reduce bureaucracy. * Preserve our nations multi-billion dollar investment in public housing by ensuring that adequate funding for maintenance and upkeep is included in the HUD budget. Fighting homelessness * Transfer 10 percent of HUD and other government-controlled housing to community non-profit organizations and churches to house the homeless. * Use the housing available at closed military bases to house the homeless, giving preference to homeless military veterans. * Develop targeted strategies to help different homeless populations those who need supported living environments, those who need residential drug and alcohol treatment, and those who need housing for their families because they can't afford it. * Hold a Housing and Homelessness Summit with urban leaders and mayors to create a new consensus for poverty programs, funding levels, and federal assistance for innovative housing crisis solutions. The Record * Governor Clinton created the Arkansas Development Finance Authority in 1985. ADFA has a national reputation for developing innovative and result-oriented housing programs which have made possible the purchase of thousands of homes for low and moderate income Arkansans. ADFA also initiated a five-state, first-of-its-kind bond issue which preserved 46,000 low-income housing units across the nation. * Founded the Arkansas Interagency Council for the Homeless in order to prepare a plan to address homelessness in Arkansas. As a result, thirty state agencies have worked together in efforts to help the homeless. * Senator Gore was an active supporter and cosponsor of the National Affordable Housing Act, which provides more affordable housing for all Americans. The legislation also encourages more partnerships between the federal government, the private sector, and state and local governments. * Cosponsored Fair Housing Amendments which add families and handicapped individuals to the list of protected groups and streamline the procedures for enforcing fair housing legislation. * Coauthored the Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act which authorized health care, emergency food and shelter, child care services and training for the homeless. Senator Gore was also an original cosponsor of the Stewart McKinney Reauthorization Act. As the number of Americans who are homeless increases, Senator Gore continues the effort to fully fund Stewart McKinney homeless assistance programs. * Cosponsored the Rural Homelessness Assistance Act, which creates a grant program to treat and prevent rural homelessness. The legislation also makes FHA inventory housing available for use as transitional permanent housing.