Twenty-one national organizations sent a letter to HUD Secretary Jackson on June 30 to express dismay about his nationally broadcast June 17 statement that “rental housing is affordable and plentiful” in the United States.

Mr. Jackson made the assertion in an address to the National Press Club that was carried on National Public Radio. “As the nation’s highest ranking housing official, your statements about housing conditions in the United States have significant influence on the public’s understanding and opinion of the U.S. housing market. We urge you to accurately represent what the data clearly show,” the NLIHC-coordinated letter said. Several recent research reports that document the affordable rental housing shortage were enclosed with the letter.

The organizations called upon the Secretary to clarify his statement. The letter and annotated references can be found at www.nlihc.org/press/pr070104.html .