FINDINGS AND PURPOSE.

SEC. 2. [42 U.S.C. 5301 note] FINDINGS AND PURPOSE. (a) Findings.—The Congress finds that— (1) for the past 50 years, the Federal Government has taken the leading role in enabling the people of the Nation to be the best housed in the world, and recent reductions in Federal assistance have contributed to a deepening housing crisis for low- and moderate-income families; (2) the efforts of the Federal Government have included a system of specialized lending institutions, favorable tax policies, construction assistance, mortgage insurance, loan guarantees, secondary markets, and interest and rental subsidies, that have enabled people to rent or buy affordable, decent, safe, and sanitary housing; and (3) the tragedy of homelessness in urban and suburban communities across the Nation, involving a record number of people, dramatically demonstrates the lack of affordable residential shelter, and people living on the economic margins of our society (lower income families, the elderly, the working poor, and the deinstitutionalized) have few available alternatives for shelter. (b) Purpose.—The purpose of this Act, therefore, is— (1) to reaffirm the principle that decent and affordable shelter is a basic necessity, and the general welfare of the Nation and the health and living standards of its people require the addition of new housing units to remedy a serious shortage of housing units for all Americans, particularly for person of low and moderate income; (2) to make the distribution of direct and indirect housing assistance more equitable by providing Federal assistance for the less affluent people of the Nation; (3) to provide needed housing assistance for homeless people and for persons of low and moderate income who lack affordable, decent, safe, and sanitary housing; and (4) to reform existing programs to ensure that such assistance is delivered in the most efficient manner possible.