Ranking Member DeLauro Statement at the Fiscal Year 2025 Budget Request Hearing for the Department of Housing and Urban Development

Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Committee, delivered the following remarks at the Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Subcommittee's hearing on the fiscal year 2025 budget request for the Department of Housing and Urban Development:

Thank you, Chairman Womack and Ranking Member Quigley, for holding this hearing.

And thank you, Acting Secretary Todman, for being here today. I want to welcome you to the Transportation-Housing and Urban Development Subcommittee, and offer congratulations on your new role as Acting Secretary of HUD.

The biggest issue affecting every single community across America is the lack of affordable housing. There is a shortage of nearly 8 million affordable homes available nationwide.

Housing costs have skyrocketed, driving up the cost of living for American families, and putting homeownership completely out of reach for many. Having a place to be and call your own is the American Dream. People are suffering without access to affordable housing.

The lack of affordable housing has contributed to the escalation of the homelessness crisis. I just spoke with mayors from across the country who shared how rates of homelessness in their communities are spiraling out of control. Some 600,000 people in America – mothers, fathers, grandparents, and children – experience homelessness on any given day.

This is an issue consuming the everyday of our local leaders. They said to me this is the thing that keeps them up at night.

High rent and low housing inventory are crippling their ability to respond. They need resources, including through increased support for Housing Choice Vouchers, and through Project-Based Vouchers which would allow for additional affordable housing development. 

There are many factors that contribute to homelessness in addition to housing affordability, but that we as a nation have yet failed to resolve this crisis and provide for the most basic of human needs to our most vulnerable populations should bring us great shame, and great urgency.

The importance of providing more housing in the places Americans live and work – and ensuring that there are roofs over the heads of children and families – should be a central focus of this Congress.

And indeed, in the final 2024 funding package, we made investments to improve housing affordability and accessibility. We prevented the eviction of nearly 5 million low-income individuals and families and invested in legal aid assistance for eviction prevention grants.

We provided historic increases for Tribal housing and community development programs, we invested in programs that help mayors and governors find locally driven housing solutions, and we expanded grants for reducing barriers to affordable housing production.

And, we expanded housing options for people experiencing homelessness by committing new resources to constructing and rehabilitating permanent supportive housing.

However, there is still an incredible amount of work to be done. Longstanding inequities in housing persist and are exacerbated by the housing inventory shortage and elevated borrowing costs.

It was just over 56 years ago that President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act – of which the Fair Housing Act was included as Title VIII.

Yet the racial homeownership gap – the difference in homeownership rates between White and Black Americans – is essentially unchanged to this day. I would like to hear more about what the Department is doing to address this historic inequity.

Looking forward to 2025, the President’s budget request for HUD proposes nearly $73 billion.

We should support investments that would enable HUD to expand rental assistance for low-income households and increase the affordable housing supply, expand homeownership opportunities for underserved borrowers, advance efforts to end homelessness, address housing-related discrimination, increase climate resilience and energy efficiency, and strengthen communities suffering from underinvestment.

Bringing down the high cost of living for American families has got to be our primary focus, and housing is one of the primary drivers of the inflation suffocating families’ budgets and holding back our economy. I believe your Department and this Subcommittee must assume a leading role in tackling these issues.

Thank you again for being here and for your public service to our country. I yield back the balance my time.