[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 52 (Monday, January 3, 2000)]
[Page 2678]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Statement on Fiscal Year 2001 Housing Vouchers

December 29, 1999

    I am pleased to announce that my budget for FY 2001 will include 
$690 million for 120,000 new housing vouchers to help America's hard-
pressed working families. These housing vouchers subsidize the rents of 
low income Americans, helping them to move closer to job opportunities. 
Housing vouchers are a critical part of my administration's efforts to 
reform welfare, reward work, support working families, and provide 
affordable housing for low income families.
    In today's booming economy, about two-thirds of new jobs are being 
created in the suburbs--far from where many low income families live. 
These new housing vouchers will enable families to move closer to a new 
job, reduce a long commute, or secure more stable housing that will help 
them get or keep a job. We should use 32,000 of the 120,000 new housing 
vouchers to help families moving from welfare to work and to use 18,000 
vouchers to help homeless individuals and families secure permanent 
housing.
    Last year we worked with Congress to secure 50,000 housing vouchers, 
the first in 4 years. This November we fought hard to provide 60,000 
additional vouchers for hard-pressed working families in the final FY 
2000 budget agreement--after having been eliminated by both the House 
and Senate bills. As we work on the next budget, I urge Congress to join 
me in a bipartisan effort to fund new housing vouchers that will make 
housing more affordable for more working
Americans.