Religious orders, prelates endorse housing trust fund - Nation - Catholic religious leaders - Brief Article

National Catholic Reporter, May 10, 2002

Catholic religious leaders are at the forefront of a coalition of religious leaders nationwide calling for the creation of a national affordable-housing trust fund.

The fund, which would not require new taxes to finance it, would help stem a growing housing crisis for the nation's poorest households. Money for it would come from a surplus from the Federal Housing Administration.

Through April 24, 187 members of the House had co-sponsored legislation creating the trust fund, 31 shy of a majority that could force a vote.

Catholic leaders were joined by U.S. Protestant, Muslim, Jewish and Buddhist religious leaders in signing an April 24 letter to President Bush asking him to sign the bill should it reach his desk.

"Once primarily a problem confined to our major urban centers, the housing crisis has now spread to affect both suburban and rural areas as well," it said.

Among Catholic leaders who signed the document were: Barbara Garavalia, president of the National Council of Catholic Women; Marist Fr. Ted Keating, executive director of the Conference of Major Superiors of Men; Cardinals Theodore E. McCarrick of Washington and Francis E. George of Chicago; and Bishops Robert J. Baker of Charleston, S.C., and Richard C. Hanifen of Colorado Springs, Colo.

At an April 24 press conference, speakers said there are 5.4 million U.S. families with "worst case" housing needs, meaning they live in substandard housing or pay at least half their income for rent.