Senator Leahy has long supported federal legislation and local efforts to create, rehabilitate and preserve permanently affordable housing.  These efforts have included funding programs such as the Community Development Block Grant and the National Housing Trust Fund, the HOME program, the Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program and the Section 8 voucher program. 

Senator Leahy is a leader in the Senate in supporting the Community Development Block Grant Program.

Since his election to the United States Senate in 1974, nearly $400 million has been allocated to Vermont communities via the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program.  To learn more about the Community Development Block Grant program, please visit here.  

Following Tropical Storm Irene, Senator Leahy led efforts to secure an additional $40 million in CDBG disaster recovery funds for Vermont to ensure that survivors would be able to return to their homes and mitigate against future disasters.  These funds helped hundreds of Vermont families, businesses and communities to recover, rebuild and prepare for future disasters.

As the most senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Senator Leahy plays a key role in advocating for increased funding for community and economic development.  Each year, Senator Leahy leads his colleagues in requesting maximum funding for the Community Development Block Grant Program and the HOME Investment Partnerships Program.

• To view a copy of the letter sent to the Senate Appropriations Committee in 2015 in support of increased funding for the Community Development Block Grant Program, please visit here.
• To view a copy of the letter sent to the Senate Appropriations Committee in 2015 in support of increased funding for the HOME Investment Partnerships Program, please visit here.

To spur investment in critical housing and development projects in Vermont’s downtowns and rural villages, Senator Leahy supports the permanent extension of Housing Tax Credits and the New Markets Tax Credit Program.  Designed to provide investors a dollar-for-dollar tax credit match for investments into low income housing, these credits support projects special needs housing for elderly people or people with disabilities, and permanent supportive housing for homeless families and individuals. 

Recognizing the need for additional resources dedicated to the creation of affordable housing, Senator Leahy pushed for the creation of the National Housing Trust Fund (NHTF) as a part of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008. The NHTF was to be used to provide a dedicated, permanent source of funding for affordable housing outside of the annual appropriations process. The Fund will distribute grants to states for the creation, rehabilitation, or financial support of rental housing as well as down payment and closing cost assistance for first-time homebuyers.

Unfortunately only a few months after the creation of the NHTF, the housing crisis forced Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the sole sources of funding for the NHTF, into conservatorship, and payments into the NHTF were suspended. Last year, Senator Leahy joined 32 of his colleagues in sending a letter to the Federal Housing Finance Agency pushing for the suspension of payments into the NHTF and the Capital Magnet Fund to be lifted.

On December 11, 2014, The Federal Housing Finance Agency announced that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would begin contributions to the Housing Trust Fund in 2015 and grantees are expected to receive much needed funding from the program early in 2016.