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Show New Housing Initiatives states contributing matching funds. Other proposals include a national housing trust fund, modeled after state programs, and a national housing partnership-an alliance of governments, corporations and nonprofit entities that would build low-cost housing. Agreement appears to be emerging that a new housing strategy is needed, one that builds on the lessons of past housing programs and takes advantage of recent innovations in states and cities around the country. Without any major new federal housing initiatives in the 1980s, much of the emphasis for providing low-cost housing has shifted to state and local governments. Responding to the growing ranks of homeless, many states and cities have poured millions of dollars into temporary shelters. A handful of states also are establishing programs to finance the construction of new public housing. Fifteen states have set up housing "trust funds'~ pools of low-interest money to assist developers to build low-cost housing. Seven states have raised money for housing projects from surplus bond revenues. Still other states and cities have tried public/private partnerships, donating the land and other resources if developers and nonprofit agencies construct the housing. The Crisis in Health Care The crisis in health care continues to dominate headlines and the policy agendas of national, state and local governments. Recent statistics dramatically portray the problem's increasing magnitude: • In 1986, nearly 37 million Americans, one-third of them children, had no private or public health care insurance, a 31-percent increase since 1980. Seventy percent of the uninsured are workers and their dependents. • In 1987, a study by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found that nearly 40 million Americans were having difficulty affording necessary health care. W bile low-income housing advocates applaud these efforts, many question whether states and localities can meet housing needs without federal help. Yet given current budget constraints, it is unlikely that the federal government will increase funding for recently slashed public housing construction programs. Thus, many national housing experts support greater cooperation among all levels of government and the private sector to provide future low-cost housing. One new idea calls fonhe creation of a federal housing block grant, with 6 |
