[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 194 (Thursday, December 5, 2019)]
[House]
[Pages H9282-H9287]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        ECONOMIC JUSTICE ISSUES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Ms. Wexton). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 3, 2019, the

[[Page H9283]]

gentlewoman from Michigan (Ms. Tlaib) is recognized for 60 minutes as 
the designee of the majority leader.
  Ms. TLAIB. Madam Speaker, today, I am representing the Congressional 
Progressive Caucus in our Special Order so that we can push forward on 
a number of agendas, especially on economic justice issues. I am really 
proud to join many of my colleagues today as we talk about housing for 
all across the United States of America.
  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Minnesota (Ms. Omar).
  Ms. OMAR. Madam Speaker, I rise today to discuss the basic and dire 
human right that so many of us take for granted, the right to a safe 
and stable home.
  Last week, families across this country gathered around in their 
dining rooms to give thanks and break bread, but many families in my 
home district were not sitting around for a holiday dinner. Instead, 
they were facing an indescribable tragedy. The day before Thanksgiving, 
a fire broke out in a 25-story public housing building in the Cedar-
Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis where I grew up. Five people lost 
their lives. And more than a week later residents are still in the 
hospital recovering from their injuries.
  After the brave men and women of the local fire department cleared 
the scene and controlled the blaze, we discovered an almost 
unbelievable reality. These homes were not equipped with sprinklers. 
You see, these buildings are so old that it is exempt from laws that 
require such lifesaving equipment.
  And that isn't the only egregious safety issue that our public 
housing residents are forced to endure.
  There has been a ban on building new public housing since the 1990s. 
In fact, the Cedar-Riverside building that sustained the fire was built 
in the 1960s. And the Federal Government has been underfunding the 
repair and maintenance needs of the homes for years. In Minnesota, the 
backlog of repair needs totals over $300 million. So not only are these 
homes half a century old, they are practically being held together with 
little more than hope and masking tape.
  Make no mistake, we, as lawmakers, bear responsibility for the 
deplorable conditions of our public housing and for the deplorable and 
unsafe conditions that millions of Americans are living in today. This 
is our fault. The Federal Government has all but abandoned public 
housing.

  We cannot continue to pretend that we can't see the crumbling 
buildings in our districts. We can't continue to ignore the hundreds of 
thousands who experience homelessness because of waiting lists for 
housing assistance. And it goes beyond the homeless population.
  Millions of Americans are living every single day in fear of 
eviction. Twelve million Americans are paying more than half of their 
income in rent, and about 6,300 people are evicted every single day.
  How can we in Congress call ourselves leaders if we continue to 
ignore this crisis?
  I, for one, refuse to continue down that path. It is time for a bold 
and progressive solution.
  I will be introducing legislation that ensures every public housing 
unit in this country is equipped with sprinklers, so that we never see 
another devastating tragedy like the one that befell the residents of 
my district. And we will be demanding accountability from HUD, 
requiring the agency to report on exactly how many units are not fitted 
with sprinklers and how much money the agency needs to fix this glaring 
hazard. But that is not enough.
  Last month I introduced Homes for All Act, which would make an 
historic investment of $1 trillion in public housing and low-income 
housing and build a record 12 million new homes over the next 10 years.
  My bill would also ensure that public housing residents are 
guaranteed access to important wraparound services like employment 
assistance, child care, and financial literacy courses.
  And just as important, my bill would make sure that public housing 
funding is a mandatory part of our Federal budget, meaning that the 
government wouldn't be able to abandon these new homes or neglect their 
upkeep. Public housing would now be treated like any other important 
guaranteed source of assistance, like Social Security and Medicare.
  While my legislation is bold, it is also absolutely necessary. Every 
human being has a right to a safe and affordable home. And without an 
historic investment in our public housing stock and greater 
accountability for the safety of our residents, we will continue to 
face tragedies like the ones that claimed the lives of five people in 
Cedar-Riverside last week. We cannot let that happen, and I will not 
let that happen.
  Madam Speaker, I thank Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib for allowing this 
conversation to take place today.
  Ms. TLAIB. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California 
(Mr. Gomez).
  Mr. GOMEZ. Madam Speaker, I thank the Congresswoman from Michigan for 
having this Special Order on such an important issue.
  When you look at inequality in America, you have to start with 
housing, because inequality often is started by how much a person pays 
to house their family, to house their kids, to house their family 
members.
  In order to solve for inequality, we have to solve the housing 
crisis. And in order to solve the housing crisis, we have to 
acknowledge and rectify America's shameful history of discriminatory 
housing practices.
  Policies and practices like redlining, segregation, blockbusting, and 
steering that denied low-income people and communities of color access 
to homeownership and created the housing disparities that are still 
prevalent today.

                              {time}  1545

  In America, homeownership is how we build wealth, and it determines 
your family's likelihood of success.
  In America, whether you rent or you own, where you live determines 
where your kids go to school.
  In America, it often determines how far you commute to work.
  In America, it often determines how far you are from a grocery store 
and healthy options for food for your family. It also determines what 
public services are available to you.
  But, unfortunately, many low-income individuals and people of color 
have been denied this opportunity.
  We still have an opportunity to make amends and rectify the 
inequalities that have persisted in low-income neighborhoods and 
communities of color.
  The Tax Code is one of the most powerful tools we have. That is why I 
reintroduced the Rent Relief Act.
  This bill aims to reduce the rent burden by creating a new refundable 
tax credit for families that are paying more than 30 percent of their 
income in rent and utilities because no family should be forced to 
choose between paying rent and meeting their basic needs. This would 
put more money in the pockets of families at a time when wages have 
remained stagnant and housing costs have increased.
  This bill has the potential to transform lives, provide millions of 
the lowest income people with a breadth of opportunities, and provide 
opportunities to climb the economic ladder by redistributing the 
benefits of homeownership to the lowest income earners.
  Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to cosponsor this important piece 
of legislation.
  Ms. TLAIB. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from New York 
(Ms. Ocasio-Cortez), my good colleague.
  Ms. OCASIO-CORTEZ. Madam Speaker, I thank Congresswoman Tlaib for 
hosting this Special Order hour on housing and our chair for presiding 
during this very critical conversation.
  We are here today to talk about one of the most core, important 
issues facing the American people, which is housing.
  Each and every year, it feels as though, as our wages remain stable 
or the same, rent is going up, and it becomes harder and harder to 
afford the very things that keep ourselves afloat and alive, whether it 
is healthcare, housing, or an education.
  During the financial crisis of 2008, American households lost $16 
trillion in wealth. Many lost their homes and saw their savings and 
retirement funds depleted. More than half of all renters in America, 
over 21 million households, were rent-burdened in 2015, meaning that 
they spent 30 percent or more of their income on rent.
  We are in one of the worst renter crises in a generation. At a time 
when our

[[Page H9284]]

country is at its wealthiest, in the city of New York, we are seeing 
populations of people who are homeless at the highest rates since the 
Great Depression. But there is another way.
  When we start to legislate housing as a human right, we begin to 
change our priorities and move away from looking at housing as a for-
profit commodity for speculation and toward something that should be 
guaranteed for all Americans at an affordable rate that can be 
accessible to all working people in America.
  That is one of the reasons why I have introduced A Place to Prosper 
Act, which includes provisions like universal rent control, just cause 
evictions, a ban on income discrimination, access to counsel, improving 
the quality of the housing stock, and a disclosures requirement on 
corporate landlords to rein in bad actors.
  Additionally, we also know that the area of housing and construction 
is one of the largest contributors to carbon emissions, which is why we 
have also introduced the Green New Deal for Public Housing Act. What 
that does is that it works and aims to decarbonize the entire public 
housing stock in the United States of America.
  It is what must be done; it is in accordance with the science; and it 
changes the value system through which we approach housing away from 
the volatile boom-and-bust speculative environment and toward a secure 
and stable economic environment that treats housing as a right.
  Ms. TLAIB. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. 
Blumenauer), my good colleague.
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Madam Speaker, I appreciate the gentlewoman's 
courtesy in permitting me to speak on this and for organizing what I 
think is one of the most important discussions that this Congress needs 
to have.
  Housing is fundamental. It has been the major source of wealth 
generation for millions of middle-class Americans and an even greater 
source of wealth accumulation for upper income Americans.
  But, sadly, it has been a source of discrimination and widening 
income inequality because of decades of systematic discrimination by 
the Federal Government against people of color, especially African 
Americans.
  I am embarrassed that in my community, returning World War II 
veterans were denied opportunities to live in neighborhoods where they 
could actually afford the loans. The redlining practices denied them an 
opportunity to be able to secure government-financed lending.
  We had practices in the real estate industry that actively steered 
people away from certain neighborhoods. We had areas where people 
resisted allowing people of color to move in. The Federal Government 
did not enforce constitutional antidiscrimination provisions.
  Madam Speaker, the consequences of decades of neglect, 
discrimination, and underinvestment is visible today in most major 
American cities. It is obvious in my community, where we are seeing a 
homeless population that is persistent and growing.
  We are seeing in communities large and small people who are rent-
burdened, as my colleagues have already referenced, with half the 
people paying more than a third of their income, many of them over 
half, if they can qualify as renters at all.
  The Federal Government has systematically reduced its modest housing 
footprint, not being involved in new housing construction for low-
income and extremely low-income people.
  There is no way, despite Ben Carson's mumbo jumbo, that those people 
can be self-sufficient, in terms of housing. They need direct 
government assistance.
  The failure to have adequately housed them plays out in our streets. 
Inadequate housing has health consequences. In fact, we are watching 
now some of America's hospital systems realizing that fact and 
investing in housing opportunities and wraparound services because 
people who are not adequately housed actually cost society far more.
  We are watching steps that are being taken in the private sector to 
recognize that this is the quickest way to close that income inequality 
gap. It is the quickest way to strengthen communities. In fact, it has 
profound consequences for education.
  Children who are housed not in concentrated poverty but in housing 
opportunities that integrate them into broader communities have much 
better performance in schools without increasing the number of 
teachers, without increasing the per capita spending per pupil. Where 
those children live is the most profound indicator of future academic 
success.
  I have been troubled with this issue for years. This summer, I spent 
time developing a report on why the Federal Government needs to get 
back into the housing game. It is entitled ``Locked Out: Reversing 
Federal Housing Failures and Unlocking Opportunity.'' It is available 
on my website.
  Madam Speaker, I am deeply concerned that we finally recognize 
housing is a fundamental right. The United Nations recognized it as a 
fundamental human right in 1948, and we are a long way from that point.
  We need to invest in reducing the shortage of 7 million affordable 
rental homes available to extremely low-income people. No State has an 
adequate supply of affordable homes.
  I propose building 12 million new public housing units and fully 
funding all the maintenance need in the existing public housing stock 
rather than slowly starving the authorities in their ability to 
maintain an adequate housing stock.
  I think it is past time to create a renter's tax credit to cover the 
difference between the rent and wages or making Section 8 vouchers an 
entitlement program available for all who qualify.
  Yes, it will be expensive, but we are already spending huge amounts 
of money subsidizing housing. The problem is that the subsidies go to 
people who need the help the least. The mortgage interest deduction 
provides most of the support for people at the upper income levels, 
people who already have housing. In countries around the world that 
don't even have a mortgage interest deduction, there is no great 
variation in homeownership rates.
  We can adjust that now. There is an opportunity for us, and I have 
proposed equalizing the benefit of the mortgage interest deduction by 
converting it into a credit so that it treats people at various income 
levels equally.
  I also think it is past time to eliminate a mortgage interest 
deduction for second homes and, instead, invest that money in helping 
people who don't have housing today.
  It may seem to some that these are ambitious proposals, but I would 
suggest that the cost of past discrimination, the cost of inaction, 
costs us far more in terms of wasted human potential, increased law 
enforcement, increased health costs, and poor academic performance.
  Madam Speaker, I deeply appreciate my colleagues coming forward with 
this discussion and working together on provisions that can make a 
difference.
  We just had the Republicans pass the largest transfer of wealth in 
America's history, adding $2 trillion to our national debt and doing 
nothing to deal with the housing crisis. In fact, it created housing 
burdens in States by wiping out the deduction for State and local 
income taxes, for instance.
  I think it is time for us to stop paying for failure, to reassess our 
policies, to reverse decades of past discrimination, and to do things 
that will make a difference for American families.
  Ms. TLAIB. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania 
(Mr. Evans), my good colleague.
  Mr. EVANS. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman, my colleague from 
the great city of Detroit and from Michigan, for showing this 
leadership.
  ``None of us are home until all of us are home.'' This is the slogan 
of Project HOME, an organization in my district that empowers 
individuals to break the cycle of poverty and homelessness, starting 
with permanent supportive housing.
  Safe, affordable housing is the basis of stability and well-being. 
Secure housing improves health outcomes, helps children perform better 
in school, and can break generational cycles of poverty. But given the 
skyrocketing cost of rent, which is outpacing incomes, secure housing 
is out of reach for many low-income families.
  Lacking a fixed address makes it harder to land a job, enroll 
children in school, apply for assistance and benefits.

[[Page H9285]]

  


                              {time}  1600

  The affordable housing shortage is a crisis in my district and in 
many other cities and neighborhoods across the Nation.
  I represent Philadelphia, a city which has a poverty rate of around 
25 percent. Let me repeat that, a city with a poverty rate of about 25 
percent. Most low-income renters spend at least half of their income on 
housing. This leaves no room for unexpected expenses such as medical 
bills, which can quickly send vulnerable families into housing 
inability, eviction, and, sometimes, homelessness.
  We must increase funding for programs that help the most vulnerable, 
including children, people with disabilities, and seniors, such as 
homeless assistance grants and the housing choice voucher program.
  Those living in poverty, including 400,000 in the city of 
Philadelphia, are struggling to find safe and affordable places to 
live. Over 40,000 families are on the Philadelphia Housing Authority 
waiting list--40,000 are on that list.
  Most low-income renters in Philadelphia receive no government 
assistance with their housing costs, driving many to rely on 
alternative arrangements to secure shelter.
  These are steps that we can take to address this growing crisis. We 
must invest in preserving existing public housing and improving health 
and safety through increased funding for the Public Housing Operating 
Fund and the Public Housing Capital Fund.
  In the city of Philadelphia, the Philadelphia City Council recently 
passed a right to counsel law, providing attorneys for low-income 
families facing evictions.
  But millions of Americans in other cities and communities face 
evictions every year. This lack of access to legal representation has 
led to unjust evictions. I am an original cosponsor of the Eviction 
Protection Act, which creates grants to provide legal representation to 
those facing eviction.
  It is not an accident that two Members who stood up here are also 
members of the Ways and Means Committee, as I am. We all recognize that 
we can use the Tax Code to lift our neighborhoods and boost our 
stability in housing.
  Yes, we can use the Tax Code. I am happy that my colleagues are from 
the Ways and Means Committee, and we should work together on that.
  I support the expansion of the low-income housing tax credit--
especially the credits for securing extremely low-income households--to 
bring capital to underserved regions.
  Access to affordable housing is a right. It is time Congress 
acknowledges that fact. All Americans deserve quality homes--all 
Americans. None of us are home until all of us are home.
  I want to stress that message: None of us are home until all of us 
are home.
  Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman, again, from Detroit, 
Michigan, for her leadership in bringing us together to talk about a 
subject that is very key to a lot of our survival. It is extremely 
essential that we have that opportunity, but it starts with leadership, 
and it starts today. We need to be relentless on this subject, and we 
need to be no nonsense.
  Ms. TLAIB. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. 
Garcia), my good colleague.
  Mr. GARCIA of Illinois. Madam Speaker, I thank Congresswoman Tlaib 
for bringing up this subject of the affordable housing shortage across 
our country. I want to speak about the affordable housing crisis that 
is unfolding across this country and affecting thousands of my 
constituents in the city of Chicago.
  Throughout the Chicago area, there are just over 90,000 affordable, 
available rental homes, but the National Low Income Housing Coalition 
estimates that there are over 326,000 low-income renter households. 
That is right. Less than one in three households in Chicago have access 
to affordable housing.
  The immense lack of housing is making it impossible for low-income 
communities to stay in our city. It is transforming my district, 
driving communities of color away from areas where they have lived for 
many, many decades.
  According to the Chicago Community Trust, Chicago has lost more than 
100,000 African American residents in the past 10 years alone. The 
Logan Square neighborhood in my district has lost more than 20,000 
Latino residents and nearly 10,000 African Americans over the past 15 
years.
  Five years ago, Chicago's city council passed an ordinance 
encouraging transit-oriented development. I believe that improving 
transportation and mobility for our neighborhoods and tying that to 
affordable housing is critically important.
  However, we know that development, when done incorrectly, can lead to 
gentrification, displacement, and racially inequitable outcomes. Since 
Chicago's ordinance passed, only one affordable housing development has 
been completed; another is getting off the ground.
  I am planning to introduce legislation to incentivize equitable 
transit-oriented development, legislation to create Federal funding for 
affordable housing to be built near public transit so workers can get 
to and from jobs, school, and healthcare, as well as take advantage of 
the city's fine cultural amenities.
  This bill will be a crucial step in addressing the enormous problems 
we are discussing today. If we can address the topics raised by the 
many speakers who are bringing home the urgency that Congress needs to 
act in this field of needed affordable housing, we can become a better 
country.
  Madam Speaker, I thank Congresswoman Tlaib for taking the initiative 
and for hosting this discussion that can benefit our country.
  Ms. TLAIB. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from 
Massachusetts (Ms. Pressley), my good colleague.
  Ms. PRESSLEY. Madam Speaker, I thank Representative Tlaib for her 
leadership on this and so many social justice issues. I really 
appreciate her organizing this Special Order hour, and I hope that, in 
some ways, it assures the American people that we have not lost sight 
of them and that this Congress continues to lead and to legislate on 
those issues of care, concern, and consequence to the American people. 
I know this is the number one constituent call that my district office 
receives, and I am certainly not alone in that.

  Housing First is not just an approach to ending homelessness; it is a 
fundamental truth that should guide everything we do in these Chambers. 
When we speak of our priorities, when we speak of the important work we 
hope to do here, housing must come first.
  Housing is the foundation of everything, and, therefore, must be 
foundational to everything that we seek to accomplish here as a body. 
Housing is a critical determinant of health and wealth and must be the 
foundation of our fight for greater justice for all.
  I also would like to reiterate some of the points made earlier 
regarding our young people learning.
  Earlier today, we heard from some young people about many of the 
barriers and obstacles to their readiness to learn. Housing was chief 
amongst them. As we see our families destabilized by growing 
gentrification and displacement and more families experiencing 
homelessness, this is certainly a contributor and a barrier to their 
readiness to learn. It is traumatic to not have a home.
  I want to thank my sister in service, Representative Ilhan Omar, for 
providing us with a vision for the future of housing: housing as a 
right; housing as a guarantee; housing for all.
  In cities across the country, including those in my district, the 
housing supply lacks both in quantity and quality. According to the 
National Low Income Housing Coalition, in my district, the 
Massachusetts Seventh, two-thirds of residents and renters and those at 
minimum wage must work at least 84 hours a week to afford a decent one-
bedroom at-fair-market-rent apartment.
  When housing is in such short and perpetually deteriorating supply, 
we must ask ourselves: Where do we expect people to go?
  When housing prices continue to skyrocket and we are constantly 
redefining affordability to hide that reality, where can people go?
  For decades, this Nation's public and affordable housing supply has 
been chronically underfunded. Any serious solution must match the scale 
of this unprecedented crisis.
  States must act; cities must act; and the Federal Government must 
act. How

[[Page H9286]]

we choose to spend our money is a direct reflection of our values.
  Representative Omar's Homes for All Act invests a total of $1 
trillion into our Nation's affordable housing stock. I was proud to be 
an original cosponsor of Homes for All, just as I was proud to 
cosponsor Senator Warren's American Housing and Economic Mobility Act.
  However, it is the work of activists and agitators on the ground that 
has pushed this issue to the forefront. While there is still much to 
do, I am heartened by the efforts of my colleagues, and I associate 
myself with all of their thoughtful and impassioned comments and 
legislative proposals highlighted during this Special Order hour.
  We must continue to mobilize, to organize, and to legislate until 
Homes for All is no longer a promise, but a guarantee.
  Ms. TLAIB. Madam Speaker, I know from my district in Detroit and 
throughout the 11 other surrounding communities, for us, being the 
third poorest congressional district in the country, housing is 
critical, critical not only for economic stability, but also in 
providing a safe haven for many of our families across the district.
  Poverty is complex. A number of factors, including State and Federal 
policy failures and racial and gender inequities, have resulted in so 
much increased poverty, especially among children. Adjusting poverty 
requires that deep public investment in housing and other 
infrastructure, healthcare access, and public school investment, 
coupled with criminal justice reform policies designed to repair a 
history of segregation and continued exploitation.
  Less than a year, Madam Speaker, into its enactment, the opportunity 
zone program has already resulted in millions of dollars of wasteful 
spending and possible corruption.
  From cities like Chicago and Baltimore to the city of Detroit, 
billionaires were able to divert public tax dollars through a tax break 
called the opportunity zone that was supposed to lead to access to 
housing for our most vulnerable in communities like mine.
  Instead, Madam Speaker, what we heard from an investigative report--
ProPublica published an article, titled: ``How a Tax Break to Help the 
Poor Went to NBA Owner Dan Gilbert.'' The article contained disturbing 
details that suggest that opportunity zones that were in the Trump tax 
scam had designated census tracts that did not meet the legal criteria 
and that political donations and influence had overridden the law to 
reward donors with generous tax breaks supposedly intended to benefit 
the poor.
  Madam Speaker, in the article, billionaire Dan Gilbert's Quicken 
Loans company donated $750,000 to President Trump's inauguration fund, 
hosted Ivanka Trump in 2017 for a panel discussion, and last year Dan 
Gilbert watched the midterm election returns at the White House with 
President Trump, who has called Gilbert ``a great friend.'' In return, 
Madam Speaker, three census tracts in downtown Detroit where Gilbert 
owns valuable property were selected for these large tax breaks through 
the opportunity zones.
  According to ProPublica, multiple studies have found that property 
values in those zones increased because of this tax break. At least one 
of those census tracts did not meet the poverty requirement for being 
an opportunity zone and appears to have been designated solely due to 
political influence.
  So, if we are going to talk about housing justice, we are going to 
talk about impacting and helping ensure that housing is a human right, 
we also need to take out the corruption and the political influence.
  Email exchanges revealed Quicken executives working in concert with 
the White House to designate tracts with Gilbert's investments as 
opportunity zones. Madam Speaker, Quicken Loans lobbyists were directly 
involved in the selection process at every level, lobbying the city, 
State, and Federal officials to include Gilbert's investment zones in 
the opportunity zone law.

                              {time}  1615

  So I am asking us as we stand for housing for all that we need to 
restore public trust in our Federal Government which has been eroded 
with the rules that have been applied unevenly here and seem to reward 
the wealthiest and the best-connected among us. It appears that a tax 
program supposedly designed to benefit the poorest among us is now 
being used to reward political donors and wealthy investors.
  I have asked the Committee on Ways and Means to investigate the 
actions by billionaire Dan Gilbert, and I have also asked the Treasury 
to respond to some of those questions.
  This is why instead of these tax breaks for the wealthy and for 
billionaire-led development, I have proposed the BOOST Act.
  The BOOST Act would give 3 to $6,000 to families making less than 
$100,000. It would instantly lift up 45 percent of Americans living in 
poverty now. Sixty-four million children would be instantly uplifted 
out of poverty. The BOOST Act would be paid for by repealing the Trump 
tax scam. In there, Madam Speaker, you saw not only the opportunity 
zones, but a number of tax breaks for the wealthy that only benefited 
the folks who are corporate-led who have actually been tainting our 
process to get access to affordable housing in this Chamber.
  So I ask my colleagues, as we propose many fixes to access affordable 
housing and to repair some of the historic segregation zoning laws and 
the continued exploitation among many of our neighbors, that we also 
make sure that we are ensured that corruption within our government is 
not expanding and that we are holding those accountable who are trying 
to taint that process.
  So I really appreciate my colleagues, members of the Congressional 
Progressive Caucus, in standing strong for housing as a human right.
  Many of the proposals you see forward, Madam Speaker, will only 
depend on whether or not we can implement it in a way that is just and 
is very democratic and, again, has really clear oversight. Things like 
the opportunity zone are not the direction that we need our country to 
go in, and I am looking forward to introducing legislation that would 
not only ask for repealing the opportunity zone but actually use it for 
land trust and community trust funds, things that will be rooted within 
communities and help those who, again, are seeing homeownership among 
communities of color decrease, seeing increases between 30 to 50 
percent of their income going towards rent. I think the way we have to 
do it is all those goals, not only proposals, but also making sure that 
we are implementing it in a way that is just and fair.
  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Green).
  Mr. GREEN of Texas. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for the 
opportunity to speak, and I commend her for her stellar effort to bring 
justice to the housing circumstance in our country.
  I am honored to say that I did visit her congressional district, and 
we had a field hearing that was quite successful. She truly is engaged 
and involved in making a difference in her community.
  Madam Speaker, I was there in 2008 when we had the housing crisis. I 
remember when Secretary Paulson came before the committee. He was there 
in need of some funds for what were called toxic assets. He was there 
because the market was in a free fall. He was there because there was 
an imminent crisis that had to be contained.
  I remember him asking for a large sum of money with few pages, 
probably less than 5 pages. He wanted us to infuse capital into a 
process that would allow us to purchase these toxic assets. He was 
indicating to us that this was an emergency. He did not ask for 
hundreds of millions of dollars. He did not ask for tens of billions of 
dollars. He requested hundreds of billions of dollars.
  I do recall that I spoke to constituents, and being the judicious 
person that I was, I did pay attention to my constituents who 
encouraged me and insisted that I not bail out the big banks. That was 
the language that was used: Do not bail out the big banks, Al.
  I was judicious. I listened to my constituents. When we took the vote 
on the floor to accord the sum of 700-some billions of dollars, I 
remember standing over in the door and looking at the vote. I could 
also see the stock market at the same time. As the bill was failing, 
the stock market was crashing. It was a day that I will never forget. I 
went back home, and I visited with my constituents.

[[Page H9287]]

  The constituents said to me: Al, what is wrong with you? You did not 
vote to save my 401(k). You let the market fall. You could have voted 
to support us.
  I learned an invaluable lesson that day. The lesson is this: there 
are times when you have to do what you know to be the best thing, even 
when your constituents might stand in opposition to it. That is the 
lesson that I carry with me to this day. I came back. We had a second 
vote, and I voted for the funds necessary to deal with the toxic 
assets.
  One of the reasons why I was so concerned about this was because I 
understood what was happening. There were instruments that were in the 
marketplace that were not suitable for everyone. We had something 
called a 327 and a 228; 3 years, 2 years of a fixed rate, and then 27 
years or 28 years of a variable rate. This was not suitable for 
everyone. We had no-doc loans, meaning no documents necessary, and you 
could walk in and work out some means by which you could acquire a 
loan, Madam Speaker. We had negative amortization, a process that 
allowed you to at some point continue to owe more than you initially 
borrowed.
  We had something called the yield spread premium. The yield spread 
premium allowed the person who originated your loan to originate a loan 
for you for an amount in excess of what you qualified for. Here is how 
it worked: That person would check to see what you were eligible for as 
a rate. You could qualify for a loan at 5 percent, but at that time 
because of the yield spread premium, the person originating could come 
out and say, good news, I have a loan for you for 8 percent. You 
qualify for 5, you get a loan for 8 percent interest, and the person 
would never have to tell you that you qualified for the 5 percent. The 
money between 5 and 8 was called the spread, and the yield on that 
spread could be shared with the person who originated the loan and the 
lender, the yield spread premium.

  Poor people, well, people who are of little means who acquired homes 
with these 327s and 228s, that I mentioned where the rate would go up 
and down, they lost homes. It is said that in the African American 
community a generation of wealth was lost--a generation. The community 
is still recovering from the 2008 downturn.
  I believe that we do have to reconsider how we address housing in 
this country. There are some people who are born into poverty. They are 
not born into plenty. For those who are not born into poverty, it is 
not easy to work your way to plenty. So we have to have housing as a 
means by which they can acquire and accumulate wealth.
  One of the things that I tried to do--and there are many things that 
can be done--is to use something called alternative credit scoring. 
This is where you will score a person's light bill, gas bill, water 
bill, phone bill, and cable bill and use that information with the 
traditional credit to allow that person to have maybe the little 
additional help needed so as to acquire a loan. It is a pilot program. 
We have passed the bill out of committee. It is H.R. 123.
  This piece of legislation will allow many, many persons with thin 
files and with little credit, because they haven't been in the credit 
market, to get a home. Many people who are paying now X number of 
dollars for rent will be able to acquire a home for X minus some 
amount, meaning less than what they are paying for rent, they will be 
able to acquire a home.
  I am pleased to say that many of the prudential agencies are in 
agreement and are encouraging this. Just today we had a hearing with 
the Housing, Community Development and Insurance Subcommittee, and Mr. 
Montgomery, who is the head of FHFA, was there. I will be visiting with 
him. He and I agreed to have an appointment so that we can talk about 
these things and see what we can do to help with homeownership for 
persons who were not born in the suites of life and many who now find 
themselves living in the streets of life.
  This is something that is an imperative. It is a moral imperative. It 
is something that we have to do because we want to have a just society, 
and a just society would afford an equal opportunity to all to have a 
place to call home. In the richest country in the world, every person 
ought to have a fair opportunity to have a place to call home.
  I thank the gentlewoman for allowing me to share, and I encourage her 
to continue on her mission to bring justice to those who find 
themselves living in places that, quite frankly, most people in 
Congress would not live in under any circumstances, but, unfortunately, 
we are not doing enough to help others to be extricated from the 
circumstances of which we speak.
  Ms. TLAIB. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________