National Housing Law Project Housing Law Bulletin

Read in the Clearinghouse Review . . .

How the Clinton Administration and the 104th Congress Impaired Poor People's Rights to Housing

The conventional wisdom is that poor people survived the 104th Congress without losing their rights guaranteed by the federal housing laws, unlike what happened to their rights to welfare. The truth, however, is that long before the 104th Congress was elected, the Clinton Administration had already begun cutting back on poor people's housing rights. And during 1995 and 1996, the Republican Congress and the Democratic Administration joined together to take even more housing rights away from the poor. During the next two years, things are likely to get even worse.

In his Clearinghouse article,¹ David Bryson describes the background to the recent changes to the federal housing programs, the funding cutbacks and devolution of the federal housing programs to state and local control. He describes the effect of the November 1994 elections and the ensuing House and Senate bills and appropriations acts that included funding cuts, public housing demolition and loss of subsidized units, the trend toward serving more moderate-income tenants, minimum rents, and the loss of federal housing tenants' and applicants' rights.

Why are poor people being stripped of their rights to housing? In light of the congressional and Administration arguments favoring these changes, what can we expect from the next Congress and the next term? This article discusses some disturbing and ongoing trends in the federal housing programs, and analyzes the impact of enacted and anticipated changes on poor people's access to decent affordable housing.

¹David B. Bryson, CLEARINGHOUSE REV. (Mar./Apr. 1997). Free copies of this publication are sent to all Legal Services-funded offices. Others may purchase it by contacting the National Clearinghouse for Legal Services, 205 W. Monroe Street, 2nd Floor, Chicago, IL 60606-5013, Tel. (312) 263-3830.