WASHINGTON - January 28 - In his first State of the Union address, President Obama challenged himself and Congress to redouble efforts to restore our country's economic health and get Americans back to work. I applaud his commitment to alleviate the hardships of millions of Americans who are out of work and assuage the fears of those who worry they will soon join the ranks of the unemployed. The use of TARP funds to pay for immediate job creation is sound public policy that more members of Congress are coming to embrace.

The speech was notably lacking in attention to what remains one of the most serious threats to family stability, that is, the mortgage foreclosure crisis and the affordable housing shortage. Not only are homeowners facing the loss of their homes, but low income renters are competing for housing in an ever shrinking supply of low cost rental homes. A report released by the National Low Income Housing Coalition in 2009, stated that in 2007, the shortage of homes affordable for extremely low income renter households (those earning 30% or less of their area median income) was 2.7 million. The shortage grew to 3.1 million homes in 2008. This lack of housing that the poorest families can afford is a root cause of homelessness in the United States today. All evidence suggests that homelessness is growing.

The President's agenda rightly focuses on jobs and education. But stable, affordable homes are fundamental to success at work and in school. The President needs to do more to prevent foreclosure. And he needs to do more to solve the longstanding shortage of homes that people in the low wage work force can afford. The President needs to follow through on his commitment to capitalize the National Housing Trust Fund. Funding the National Housing Trust Fund with $1 billion would support the immediate production of 10,000 rental homes. In addition to helping some low income people achieve housing stability, an investment at this level would create 15,100 new construction jobs and 3,800 new jobs in ongoing operations.

Funding for the National Housing Trust Fund is in the "Jobs for Main Street Act, 2010" that passed the House in December. The House bill would use TARP funds to pay for its jobs package. The President should call on the Senate to do the same and send him a bill to sign as soon as possible.

But more is needed to solve the affordable housing crisis. The National Low Income Housing Coalition has called for 250,000 new Housing Choice Vouchers in 2010. When low income families receive housing assistance that reduces the percent of their income that they must spend on housing, they are able to better meet the rest of their basic needs. In doing so, they are able to contribute to their local economies if they have the income to purchase goods and services, indirectly supporting job growth. The freeze on domestic discretionary spending, which includes HUD programs, that the President has proposed, is bad social policy and bad economic policy.

I too am worried about the huge national debt. But relying on the domestic discretionary cuts places the burden of deficit reduction on those Americans who can least afford it and who are suffering the worst effects of the recession. More needs to be asked of those who have the most. The President is right to expect wealthy Americans to pay more taxes.

More information about the National Housing Trust Fund is available at: www.nhtf.org