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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Vice President

For Immediate Release October 15, 1997

VICE PRESIDENT GORE ANNOUNCES OVER $64 MILLION IN HOUSING AID FOR CALIFORNIA ELDERLY AND DISABLED

LOS ANGELES -- Vice President Gore today (10/15) announced $64,313,400 million in Federal assistance to non-profit groups in California to create subsidized housing for senior citizens and disabled Americans with very low incomes.

"America will not turn its back on older Americans or people with disabilities struggling to get by," said Vice President Gore. "The men and women who spent decades working hard to build 20th Century America should not be left without a place to live in 21st Century America. People challenged by disabilities should not face the added challenge of keeping a roof over their heads."

In California, the assistance from the Department of Housing and Urban Development will create 612 apartment units for the elderly and 77 rental units for people with disabilities. It will also provide rental subsidies to residents of the housing for five years.

"Without HUD assistance, many of these Americans simply could not make it," said HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo. "They would be forced to live in slums, or doubled and tripled up with relatives in overcrowded housing, or sent to nursing homes or other institutions at taxpayers expense, or even forced into homelessness in the most extreme cases."

The HUD aid is designed to provide housing for people 62 and older and adults with disabilities who have incomes below 50 percent of the area median. Nationally, 50 percent of median income amounts to less than $8,000 a year.

Residents pay 30 percent of their income in rent, and HUD subsidies pay the remaining funds needed to operate the housing. HUD provides funds to the non-profits in two forms:

Capital Advances. This is money that covers the cost of developing the housing. It does not need to be repaid as long as the housing is available for occupancy by very low-income elderly or people with disabilities for at least 40 years.

Project rental assistance. This goes to each non-profit to cover the difference between the resident's contribution toward rent and the cost of operating the project.

For more information on these or any other HUD assistance programs contact Larry Bush at the San Francisco HUD office at (415) 436-6532 or HUD public affairs at (202) 708-0685.