In noting the 50^th anniversary of former President Lyndon Johnson’s legislation creating the Department of Housing and Urban Development as a means to provide housing assistance in a growing urban population, Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) has issued a challenge to the public for assistance in solving the problems of poverty and housing affordability.

Saying after spending $1.6 trillion dollars in a variety of programs and initiatives, “Decent housing remains unavailable or unaffordable for far too many today just as it did five decades ago. HUD has failed to solve this persistent problem because it has failed to focus on its underlying cause: the very real human tragedy of generational cycles of poverty that we see in so many communities.”

He adds, “HUD has come to symbolize the dashed hopes of the Great Society vision that mistook centralization for coordination and spending for compassion.”

Rep. Hensarling is asking consumer advocates, organizations and individual citizens to proffer ideas on how to restructure HUD in an effort to update the delivery of federal housing assistance so that it meets the original intent of its founding, as MHProNews understands.

He offers the following submission requirements:

“Submissions to modernize the delivery of federal housing assistance for today’s generation should include specific proposals and recommendations on:

1. Restructuring HUD to maximize its organizational efficiency,

2. Innovative approaches to address housing affordability that respect individual rights and promote individual responsibility,

3. Methods of targeting housing assistance to address generational cycles of poverty,

4. Examples of successful implementation of such proposals at the local, national, or international level (if applicable).

Additional Submission Requirements:

• All submissions must be sent in a Word document or PDF attachment. The file name must include the name of the organization/individual submitting the recommendations and the date.

• Submissions must include a cover sheet containing the contact name, organization, phone number, and email address of the organization/individual submitting the recommendations.

• Submissions will be accepted through Nov. 1, 2015, and may be incorporated into Committee proposals or made public at a later date.

• If the directions above are not followed, the Committee reserves the right to not include the submission.”

Ideas should be submitted in an email to the following address: transformhousing@mail.house.gov. ##

For a link to MHARR’s impending response to Rep. Hensarling’s invitation, please click here.

(Photo credit: wikipedia–Rep. Jeb Hensarling)

Article submitted by Matthew J. Silver to Daily Business News-MHProNews.