WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Jacky Rosen (D-NV) led a group of ten Senators in a letter urging the President to request increased funding for affordable housing in his FY 2021 Budget request to Congress, specifically for the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation, also known as NeighborWorks America, a Congressionally-chartered, national nonprofit, whose programs offer critical affordable housing assistance to low- and middle-income Nevada families. Signatories of Rosen’s letter include Senators Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Bob Casey (D-PA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Cory Booker (D-NJ), and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT).
“As a Congressionally-chartered, national nonprofit, NeighborWorks helps create opportunities for Americans to live in affordable and safe homes by providing community development organizations in all fifty states with financial resources and counseling services,” wrote Senator Rosen and her colleagues. “Despite these positive outcomes and a rising affordable housing crisis on the nation’s doorstep, your Fiscal Year 2020 Budget recommended that NeighborWorks funding be cut by over 80 percent, with the remaining dollars allocated only for preparing ‘the discontinuation of federal funding,’ effectively eliminating this critical program. Given the program’s demonstrated record of success in increasing access to affordable housing and continued bipartisan support in Congress, we encourage you to request increased funding for the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation in your FY2021 Budget. With additional funding, NeighborWorks will be able to increase grants to network community-development organizations, leverage additional investments from private sources, and create opportunities for more Americans to live in affordable homes.”
Read the full text of Senator Rosen’s letter here.
BACKGROUND: In October, Senator Rosen included an amendment to increase funding for Neighborworks by $2 million in the Substitute Amendment to H.R. 3055, the Commerce, Justice, Science, Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, Interior, Environment, Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Act of 2020. The final bill signed into law included $158.5 million in funding for Neighborworks.
As a Congresswoman, Rosen led the effort in the House to increase investment in this critically important program, which has provided funding to Nevada HAND and the Neighborhood Housing Services of Southern Nevada (NHSSN).
###
