March 18, 2020 ICYMI: "Help Is Here" Tour Highlights Help to Keep Roofs Over Heads

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  March 18, 2020    ICYMI:  "Help Is Here" Tour Highlights Help to Keep Roofs Over Heads  Today, the “Help Is Here” tour highlighted how the American Rescue Plan will help Americans and their families pay their rent, stay in their homes, and keep a roof over their heads.   Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge spoke from the White House briefing room about her top priority: delivering housing relief to Americans as the pandemic has worsened the country’s housing affordability crisis. She emphasized that the American Rescue Plan is vital to HUD's efforts to ensure every person has a safe, stable home. Additionally, Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough spoke with about why supporting Americans who are facing housing challenges is a top priority for the Biden-Harris Administration.  Read more about the “Help Is Here” tour below:  Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge   Cleveland Plain Dealer: HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge touts American Rescue Plan at White House press conference  "A week after being sworn in as President Joe Biden’s Housing and Urban Development Secretary, former Ohio Congress member Marcia Fudge made her first appearance at a White House press conference to boost efforts to fight homelessness to be undertaken with money from the $1.9 trillion stimulus bill that Biden signed last week. Fudge’s drive to boost the bill is part of a full-court press by the Biden administration to promote the bill throughout the country that will include Biden’s first presidential visit to Ohio next week."  MSNBC: Secretary Marcia Fudge: ‘Fair housing is the law of the land’  Secretary Fudge highlighted the ways the American Rescue Plan will support HUD's efforts to make sure every American has safe, stable housing, telling JoyAnn Reid, "We're going to assist cities and communities to purchase housing for people who are on the streets. We're going to assist homeowners in staying in their homes and renters staying in their apartments."  ABC News Good Morning America: HUD secretary’s plan to help those facing evictions and foreclosuresv  Secretary Fudge explains that she expects a substantial increase in the number of homeless Americans as a result of the pandemic. She highlights why it’s particularly important for those living on the streets to get vaccinated, made possible through funding from the American Rescue Plan.  Politico: 'Understaffed and overworked': Fudge calls for $100B boost in HUD funds  '[Fudge]' also said the relief package gives HUD a “historic, maybe one-time opportunity” to reverse a decades-long brain drain. HUD today is operating with less than half the staff it had in 1991. 'The rescue plan is allowing us to do things that we may not have been able to do without it, so I'm especially pleased that the president had the foresight and the vision to give us a historic, maybe one-time opportunity to change what is going on,' she added.  Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough  CBS Pensacola: New V.A. Secretary talks to WKRG News 5 about COVID relief for Veterans  "The new Secretary of Veterans Affairs has only been on the job for about a month. But Denis McDonough’s job is starting out on a high note with the passing of President Biden’s COVID relief package that includes some $17B to help veterans. 'The lion’s share of that, 14 and a half billion, is for healthcare.  So that’s going to allow us to update our facilities,' said McDonough in a Zoom interview with WKRG News 5’s Bill Riales."  MSNBC Morning Joe: VA to use funds from Covid relief for health care priorities, says secretary  Secretary of Veterans Affairs Denis McDonough joins Morning Joe to discuss how money from the $1.9T American Rescue Plan will be used for Veterans Affairs health care priorities.