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ICYMI – Ranking Member Waters on Jordan Neely: “No One in America Should Be Homeless, And It Certainly Should Not Be a Death Sentence Should a Person Become Homeless.”

In a new opinion piece published this morning in the HuffPost, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, shared her thoughts on the brutal murder of Jordan Neely earlier this month. In the op-ed, Waters fiercely condemns the brutality and criminalization that people experiencing homelessness are unjustly met with and calls for additional legislative action – on top of the funding she’s been able to secure – to address our nation’s worsening housing crisis and end homelessness.

Read an excerpt of the piece below:

As the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee and a policymaker who has fought tirelessly for years to combat our nation’s affordable housing crisis, I can tell you that the only thing that will truly end someone’s homelessness is a house. It really is that simple. During the pandemic, the investments I secured in the American Rescue Plan Act were used to house over 140,000 people who had been living on the streets. As the richest country in the world, we have the resources to ensure everyone has a safe and stable home, but far too often, we lack the will to do so.

In cities and states everywhere, communities spend far more taxpayer dollars on displacing and criminalizing people experiencing homelessness than it would cost to house them and ensure they have the resources they need to thrive. In fact, research shows that it costs our nation’s taxpayers a whopping $31,000 per year to criminalize someone suffering from homelessness. On the other hand, the cost of providing them with supportive housing is less than a third of that cost — only $10,000.

We must abandon inhumane and expensive approaches to homelessness that only worsen the problem and rob us of hope for a brighter future. People need homes, not handcuffs; outpatient mental health services, not forced institutionalization; and compassion, not murder. To advance President Joe Biden’s federal strategy to address the nation’s mental health crisis, Congressional Democrats provided $300 million to expand community-based mental health services and established the first-ever ‘988’ Suicide and Crisis Lifeline to provide 24/7 support to anyone in a suicidal crisis or emotional distress. But we must do more.

President Biden’s long-stalled Build Back Better Act was a step in the right direction. It included legislation I authored that would have provided $150 billion to create nearly 1.4 million affordable housing units, putting us on the road to finally ending homelessness in America. We have an obligation to ensure that everyone, including men and women like Jordan, can grow old, have a roof over their heads, and be treated with respect.


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