Federal Policy Update

On September 7th, federal legislation to address the vacant housing problem was introduced into the House by Representative Brian Higgins (NY) and the Senate by Senator Hillary Clinton (NY). Below is a Dear Colleague letter from Representative Higgins circulating about the bill, as well as the text of the legislation itself. Please help support this bill by urging your local Congressional representatives to cosponsor it.

Download a draft of the bill (96kb PDF).

Read an Interview with Representative Higgins (128kb PDF).

HELP COMMUNITIES FIGHT THE DISASTROUS IMPACTS OF DILAPIDATED VACANT HOUSING AND BREATHE NEW LIFE INTO STRUGGLING NEIGHBORHOODS

Dear Colleague,

On June 10th, 2007, veteran firefighter Mark Reed suffered life-threatening injuries after a chimney collapsed on him while he was a fighting a fire in a vacant house in Buffalo, New York. The fire, ruled arson by police officials, was another in a long string of crimes that have occurred in vacant homes in urban neighborhoods across the country. Vacant homes that have fallen into a sad state of decay and disrepair tear at the fabric of communities, causing crime, falling property values, fiscal strain on local governments, and social turmoil within neighborhoods.

The vacant housing problem is growing, especially in vulnerable communities that are cursed with weak economies. That is why I introduced H.R. 3498, the Neighborhood Reclamation and Revitalization Act of 2007, to devote specific federal funds to the vacant housing problem and to help communities develop innovate ways to re-use newly vacant land.

Specifically, the bill would:

• Create a new residential housing demolition program administered by HUD, for municipalities across the country that have a comprehensive plan to demolish vacant housing, have been losing population since 1980, and have experienced substantial urban decay and neighborhood degradation resulting from vacant housing.
• Provide grants for municipalities to study how to re-use land after homes are demolished. This would give municipalities the opportunity to explore new and creative ideas to use newly vacant land and breathe new life into long-struggling neighborhoods. The goal of the study would be to abbreviate to as short as possible the time from demolition to redevelopment.
• Grant funds would supplement already existing programs. Grant funds would only supplement funds already received by municipalities under programs like CDBG, HOME, etc. Funds granted as part of this program cannot be used against a municipality in seeking federal funds from any other HUD grant program.
• Would establish a specific federal commitment to housing demolition. The bill authorizes appropriations of $100 million over three years: $20 million for fiscal year 2009; $30 million for fiscal year 2010; $50 million for fiscal year 2011.
  

This bill is essential to help alleviate the burden that vacant housing wreaks on many struggling communities across the country, and I invite your cosponsorship of this initiative. Please contact Matthew Fery at 225-3306 or matthew.fery@mail.house.gov if you would like to cosponsor or if you have any questions about the bill.

Sincerely,
s/
BRIAN HIGGINS
Member of Congress