Today, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Chairwoman of the House Committee on Financial Services, gave the following opening statement at a Subcommittee on Housing, Community Development and Insurance virtual hearing entitled, “Preserving a Lifeline: Examining Public Housing in a Pandemic.” 

Thank you very much Mr. Chairman. I certainly appreciate this hearing that you’re holding today. Of course, I have been a longtime advocate for public housing and greatly appreciate all the work public housing authorities and their staff have done to keep their residents safe and connected to their community during this trying time. I want you to know that while I did not grow up in public housing, many of my family members did grow up in public housing. Don’t forget, I am one of thirteen children and so I was gone from the family residence and after I was gone, many of those family members ended up having the only place that was affordable to them, was public housing. And so, I’m from St. Louis, Missouri and we have some of the oldest public housing in St. Louis – Carr Square Village, and of course I was there when they developed Pruitt-Igoe and when they tore it down, and we learned a lot from those lessons. And so, I am very pleased to be with you today. housing is infrastructure and we are going to make sure that public housing is covered in our infrastructure bill.

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