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Housing aid hike proposed
jo-ann.moriarty@newhouse.com
WASHINGTON - The House Financial Service Committee is recommending that the federal funding for the Hope VI program, which the Bush administration sought to kill, be increased from $99 million to $800 million annually, giving cities such as Holyoke greater chances to rebuild neighborhoods fallen to poverty into development that brings mixed incomes into the same section of the city.
But the language voted out of committee does not establish the actual funding for the program.
That task is done by the House Appropriations Committee, of which U.S. Rep. John W. Olver, D-Amherst, is a member and chairman of the subcommittee on transportation, housing and urban development.Olver was able to pull together an additional $21 million for the Hope VI program, started by the Clinton administration to tear down decaying housing projects and build developments that contained homeownership and rentals and families from different socio-economic strata.
"This is fantastic," Raymond P. Murphy Jr. said yesterday. He is the head of the Holyoke Housing Authority, who oversaw the upwards of $100 million in 2002 for the reconstruction of Jackson Parkway into a Hope VI project.
Holyoke is writing a grant application for $20 million to rebuild Lyman Terrace, which is a block from City Hall. Applications are due on Nov. 7.
Also included in the Hope VI bill is an amendment written by Olver that would require all federal housing projects be "green construction" or environmentally friendly to conserve energy by the technology used for heating and cooling as well as the materials used.
Movie star Brad Pitt is part of a consortium involved in a project to build 150 green homes on sites of houses destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.
Linda M Couch, the executive direction of the National Low Income Housing Coaltion, said that Olver stands out as a member of Congress for advancing the nation's progress to build with technology that considers the environment. more HERE
