Urge your
senators to demand action on Gulf Coast Housing Recovery Act
Katrina survivors need housing. Two years
after Hurricane Katrina, more than 12,000 people in New Orleans
are still homeless, and planned demolitions may claim 5,000
public-housing units at a time when homes for low-income
families are sorely needed. Another 38,000 people in the region
will soon be moved out of trailers that FEMA now admits are
toxic.
We have a small window of opportunity to pass the Gulf Coast
Housing Recovery Act, which will make a real difference in the
lives of survivors of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The bill is
currently stuck in the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking,
Housing, and Urban Affairs, of which Senator Christopher J. Dodd
(D-CT) is the chair and Senator Richard Shelby is the Ranking
member. Dodd and Shelby have the power to move the legislation
out of the committee for a vote in the Senate, where there are
enough votes to pass the legislation.
Take action
now! Ask your Senators to Co-sponsor S. 1668!
UUSC staff and Gulf Coast activists are
sending the message to the Senate that we have not forgotten the
people of the Gulf Coast, and neither should they.
Please call your senators today and ask them to cosponsor the
Gulf Coast Housing Recovery Act, if they have not done so
already. If they are a cosponsor, please thank them. If not, ask
them to contact Senator Dodd to express their support for the
bill. For a list of cosponsors, please see reverse.
Join UUSC's efforts to enact needed Gulf
Coast legislation.
Contact your
senators today!
Send an urgent message to your senators via e-mail through our
online
Legislative Action Center and by calling the Capitol
switchboard at 202-224-3121, where you can ask for the office of
each of your senators.
Message/talking points
--Please become a cosponsor/ thank you for
being a cosponsor of the Gulf Coast Housing Recovery Act. Many
people in the Gulf Coast still need housing and are struggling
to recover two years after Hurricane Katrina. Stand up for
low-income families who are still struggling to rebuild their
lives.
--Please call Senators Dodd and Shelby and ask them to push the
Gulf Coast Housing Recovery Act through the Senate Banking,
Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee. It’s not too late to make
a difference.
--You have the support of Gulf Coast organizations who work
directly with the most vulnerable populations, and you have the
support of a broad coalition of national organizations working
for a just recovery.
--Passing the Gulf Coast Housing Recovery Act would send a
strong signal that the people of the Gulf Coast have not been
forgotten.
--Affordable housing is vital to the recovery of all sectors of
the Gulf Coast. Without homes, families cannot return to work,
attend schools, or help rebuild their communities.
Cosponsors of the Gulf Coast
Housing Recovery Act of 2007
Background
On June 20, 2007, Senators Chris Dodd
(D-CT) and Mary Landrieu (D-LA) introduced the Gulf Coast
Housing Recovery Act. Dodd told his colleagues that “this bill
would help jump-start economic development to the communities
devastated by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. It will also help
bring people home so they can resume their lives.” He called
this legislation a “critical step towards rebuilding the Gulf
Coast” and expressed concern that almost two years after the
storms, “hundreds of thousands of people remain in limbo,
wondering if they will be able to return home.”
The Gulf Coast Housing Recovery Act (which builds on the
bipartisan House bill H.R. 1227) will help low-income families,
whether renters or public-housing tenants, return home. It
increases new homeownership opportunities and shores up funding
deficiencies in Louisiana’s The Road Home program. The bill also
includes greater oversight and monitoring of federal recovery
funds for all Gulf Coast states.
For more information on UUSC’s Gulf Coast Recovery work, please
visit
www.uusc.org/katrina/index.html.
