[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 52 (Monday, January 1, 2001)]
[Pages 3174-3176]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
The President's Radio Address

December 23, 2000

    Good morning. This weekend we not only celebrate the first Christmas 
of the new millennium; we also celebrate an America

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blessed with the gift of unprecedented prosperity and progress.
    We're in the midst of the longest economic expansion in our Nation's 
history, with record surpluses, more than 22 million new jobs, the 
lowest unemployment in history, and the lowest Hispanic- and African-
American unemployment ever recorded.
    We have strengthened the cornerstone of the American dream along the 
way: the chance to own a home. Today, we have the highest homeownership 
in our Nation's history with record levels of minority homeownership. 
And more Americans than ever are celebrating that gift this holiday 
season.
    Over the last 8 years, Vice President Gore and I have worked hard to 
give nearly 10 million more families the opportunity to own their own 
homes by cutting redtape, speeding up loans, making financing available 
for families who were too often locked out of the market, creating more 
opportunity and choice for families who live in assisted housing.
    In the last 3 years, our administration has secured nearly 200,000 
new housing vouchers to help hard-pressed families find decent and 
affordable housing. I want to especially thank our HUD Secretary, Andrew 
Cuomo, for his extraordinary commitment to making affordable housing 
accessible to citizens who need it most.
    Today we're introducing new measures to more fully integrate public 
housing, so families from different social and economic walks of life 
have the chance to live in diverse communities. In addition to expanding 
opportunity for more Americans, this will also help to break down 
destructive barriers of race and class.
    We're also taking action to increase loan limits from the Federal 
Housing Administration by nearly 9 percent to help more working families 
to own their first home. Since 1993, the FHA program has given more than 
4 million Americans that chance. We have made real progress.
    But too many Americans still will be spending this Christmas without 
a roof over their heads. That's why we've helped to move thousands of 
families off the street. Yet, there still are more than a half million 
men, women, and children whose only home every night is a neighborhood 
shelter or a park bench.
    In this time of unparalleled prosperity, we must do more to help 
them. Today I'm pleased to announce $1 billion in new grants to help 
more than 200,000 homeless people along the path to self-sufficiency. 
This is the largest amount ever dedicated to helping homeless Americans 
rebuild their lives.
    The grants will fund proven successful programs like Continuum of 
Care, which helps homeless families with transitional and permanent 
housing, drug treatment and medication, job training, and child care. It 
also funds efforts like the Emergency Shelter Grants program, which 
provides for transitional housing and helps communities maintain 
emergency shelters.
    Taken together, these grants are a gift that will give back to us in 
many ways. They will empower communities to employ innovative solutions 
to helping homeless adults and their children, people like Juanita 
Price, a recovering drug addict who once spent her nights in abandoned 
buildings and hollowed-out cars. Thanks to the Continuum of Care 
program, Juanita found the support she needed and turned her life 
around. Today, she's got a steady job, an apartment, and she's studying 
to be a nurse at Howard University here in Washington, DC.
    There are lots and lots of people like Juanita who could use a 
helping hand. Today we're lending that hand by giving more homeless 
Americans the tools they need to succeed, so that this Christmas they 
can find warmth inside a home, not from the top of a steam grate.
    It is said in the Scripture: ``I will appoint a place for my people 
so they may dwell in a place of their own and move no more.'' Today, in 
this season of hope and giving, we should redouble our efforts to ensure 
that every American can have a place of his or her own.
    The steps we're taking now will create new opportunity for the 
homeless, for hard-pressed working families, and for those struggling to 
buy their first home. I can't think of any better way to celebrate this 
holiday season.
    Thanks for listening.

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 Note:  The address was recorded at 4:40 p.m. on December 22 in the Oval 
Office at the White House for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on December 23. 
The transcript was made available by the Office of the Press Secretary 
on December 22 but was embargoed for release until the broadcast.