Modified Dream

The National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) claims that the Bush administration’s actions on housing policy don’t match its rhetoric. One example: NLIHC says the American Dream Downpayment Act, signed by President Bush last year, originally authorized funding of $200 million per year for four years to assist 160,000 families with closing costs. But the omnibus appropriations bill, which President Bush signed in late January, allocated just $87.5 million for the American Dream program in fiscal 2004, funding that NLIHC says will help only 17,500 families in the coming year.