Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the Committee on Financial Services, issued the following statement on Senate passage of H.R. 3700, “The Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act of 2015,” that will make improvements to federal housing programs:

“I am pleased that Congress has come together to improve some of our most important federal housing programs. The Senate cleared legislation, H.R. 3700, that will make modest, incremental reforms to help these programs better operate and serve our most vulnerable populations. However, there is still much more work to be done to fully address the rental housing crisis in this country. I hope that we continue to focus on these issues so that we can ensure everyone has access to safe, decent, and affordable housing, including the nearly 600,000 Americans who are homeless.”

H.R. 3700, which the House passed in February, includes text of legislation that Waters introduced last year to increase flexibility for public housing authorities to develop new units of affordable housing to serve vulnerable populations. Several provisions included in H.R. 3700 were also in earlier versions of Section 8 reform legislation introduced by Waters in previous Congresses. Waters also successfully worked with Republicans to remove problematic provisions in earlier drafts of H.R. 3700, including one that would have negatively affected families with children living in federally-assisted housing.

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