Senator Murray Holds Roundtable in Vancouver to Highlight American Rescue Plan Relief

– Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), held a virtual roundtable with the Vancouver Housing Authority and local housing providers, as well as recipients of federal housing relief from the Vancouver area, to discuss how the American Rescue Plan Act has helped people in Clark County make rent and keep a roof over their head. Vancouver Housing Authority was the first housing authority in Washington state to issue all of the rental assistance vouchers they received thanks to the American Rescue Plan.

Senator Murray was joined by Andy Silver, Chief Operation Officer of the Vancouver Housing Authority and Executive Director for the Council for the Homeless; Katie Louis, Director of Affordable Housing and Stability at Share Vancouver; Aristotle Stout, Pauline Crowell, and Jacqueline Alley, who are all American Rescue Plan Emergency Housing Voucher recipients; Terrell Berry, Case Manager of Janus Youth Programs; and Kahlia Ventura, Case Manager of Sea-Mar- Community Services Northwest.

During the call, Senator Murray highlighted her push to include a major federal investment in direct support for people facing housing insecurity as part of the American Rescue Plan, which Democrats passed in March, including rental, utility, and mortgage assistance, as well as funding for housing authorities to provide more affordable housing and housing solutions for people experiencing homelessness.

Senator Murray has continued working to ensure people in Vancouver and across the state have the federal support they need to keep a roof over their heads, and is pushing for the largest federal investment in affordable housing support and rental assistance in the Build Back Better Act that Senate Democrats are currently finalizing.

Build Back Better would enable the construction, rehabilitation, and improvement of more than 1 million affordable homes across the country, boosting housing supply and reducing price pressures for renters and homeowners. It would make a historic investment in rental assistance, expanding vouchers to hundreds of thousands of additional families. And, it includes one of the largest investments in down payment assistance in history, enabling hundreds of thousands of first-generation homebuyers to purchase their first home and build wealth.

This legislation would create more equitable communities, through investing in community-led redevelopment projects in historically under-resourced neighborhoods and removing lead paint from hundreds of thousands of homes, as well as by incentivizing state and local zoning reforms that enable more families to reside in higher opportunity neighborhoods.