CISNEROS SENDS REPORT TO CONGRESS PUSHING FOR COMMON GROUND;
URGES PASSAGE OF 1996 LEGISLATION THAT REFLECTS AMERICAN VALUES
"Time to Develop a New Vision for Communities"
WASHINGTON-U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary
Henry G. Cisneros today released a report detailing plans for HUD's
continued reinvention and sent a letter to Congressional leaders
urging a common ground effort on urban policy in 1996.
"I believe the coming year offers a rare opportunity to seek
common legislative ground by infusing common-sense American values
into HUD's programs," said Cisneros.
"HUD has made tremendous progress in our reinvention efforts,
working closely with Congressional leaders on both sides of the
aisle," said Cisneros. "It is my hope that we can use the policy
and program changes outlined here as the basis for further bi-
partisan legislation that will see a renewal of our core values in
America's urban policy: demanding personal responsibility,
rewarding hard-work, promoting self-sufficiency, harnessing the
free market and expanding individual opportunity.
"What these changes would mean is that our working principle
would not be to maintain individuals, families or communities in
perpetual dependence, but to create a framework of supports,
incentives and rules so people can help themselves and lift
themselves beyond governmental assistance," said Cisneros.
The report has four core elements:
Give Power To Communities. We are changing the way HUD works to
put communities -- not Washington -- first, so that all federal
resources will help build safe, strong and hopeful communities from
the ground up, with local priorities and needs leading the way, by:
- consolidating over 20 duplicative and unnecessary programs
into three funds
- providing flexibility to communities
- rewarding the best local performance
- planting the seeds to grow private sector jobs and business
in distressed communities
Transform All Federal Housing Assistance. We are dramatically
reinventing all federally assisted housing to ensure decent,
affordable housing for all who need it and to make certain that it
is a temporary step on the road to economic self-sufficiency, by:
- demolishing the worst public housing and replacing it with
livable apartments
- changing the incentives so people are encouraged to work
- cracking down hard on gangs and drug dealers
- evicting irresponsible tenants, suing corrupt owners and
seizing mismanaged PHAs
- expanding the supply of affordable housing
Ensure All Americans the Opportunity of Homeownership. We are
pursuing a sustained, national effort to ensure the opportunity of
homeownership for all Americans who want it, by:
- setting a goal of reaching the highest homeownership rate in
U.S. history
- bringing down barriers to homeownership by lowering
downpayments and closing costs
- shortening the time it takes to serve our customers
- protecting every American against rental and ownership
discrimination
- giving public housing and Section 8 residents the chance to
buy a home
- creating Homeownership zones in inner cities
Create a Community First, Right-Side Up Cabinet. We are proposing
to transform HUD into a cabinet department that literally inverts
the organizational chart by:
- moving staff out of Washington and into communities
- establishing local HUD Service Centers to stay in touch with
communities
- retraining HUD personnel to meet 21st century community
challenges
- using technology to create a virtual, paperless HUD
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