The Berkeley County Commission Chambers housed a Congressional Field hearing Tuesday.  Congresswoman Shelly Moore Capito (R-WV) and the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity heard testimony from national, state and local officials about the state of housing in West Virginia.  Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), the chairman of the subcommittee, and Capito, the ranking member of the subcommittee, conducted the hearing.

Capito says all of the testimony given will be entered into the Congressional Record, and might be used in future legislative proposals.  Waters opened the meeting by explaining some of the issues facing West Virginia in light of the recent slump in the housing market.  Among them are increased housing costs that have put rentals further out of reach for most Wets Virginians, falling home prices that are causing people to pay more for their mortgages than their homes are actually worth and abandoned or foreclosed properties damaging neighborhoods.

The neighborhood Stabilization Act will allocate $4 billion for states to buy and rehabilitate deserted and foreclosed properties.  Waters said that $23.1 million will be going to West Virginia. 

Capito said the hearing has brought Congress to West Virginia and gave the chairman of the subcommittee see first hand how rural states are dealing with the mortgage crisis and affordable housing.  She said that since the meeting was open to the public, it gave people in the Eastern Panhandle not only observe Congress and weigh in on the issue themselves.

Congresswoman Capito speaks about the hearing

Categories: Local News
Tags: Berkeley County, Capito, economy, Government, Housing, Housing Authority, martinsburg, Waters