---
type: "LegalText"
title: "42 U.S.C. § 12702"
description: "Objective of national housing policy"
jurisdiction: "us"
corpus: "united_states_code"
kind: "code_section"
title_number: 42
title_name: "THE PUBLIC HEALTH AND WELFARE"
chapter_number: "130"
chapter_name: "NATIONAL AFFORDABLE HOUSING"
section: "12702"
citation: "42 U.S.C. § 12702"
status: "current"
release_point: "119-100"
release_date: "2026-06-26"
source: "official"
source_url: "https://uscode.house.gov/download/releasepoints/us/pl/119/100/xml_usc42@119-100.zip"
source_identifier: "/us/usc/t42/s12702"
source_file: "data/legal/raw/us/code/title-42/usc42.xml"
source_hash: "dad1d6f0d816cb0028a0d0765b8073d0d2638f115277c4dac8391c5cc1b7208b"
raw_snapshot_hash: "644321055a08eb1f260a6a3e31ac157fa024756abf612a9fd6857e7e400cf24e"
text_hash: "3e745838715cb156162b143fb843738e0e8fdd925a87c84524e1bb2c67452f68"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-04"
confidence: "official"
tags: ["legal", "us-code"]
---

# 42 U.S.C. § 12702 - Objective of national housing policy

## Text

The objective of national housing policy shall be to reaffirm the long-established national commitment to decent, safe, and sanitary housing for every American by strengthening a nationwide partnership of public and private institutions able—

(1) to ensure that every resident of the United States has access to decent shelter or assistance in avoiding homelessness;

(2) to increase the Nation’s supply of decent housing that is affordable to low-income and moderate-income families and accessible to job opportunities;

(3) to improve housing opportunities for all residents of the United States, particularly members of disadvantaged minorities, on a nondiscriminatory basis;

(4) to help make neighborhoods safe and livable;

(5) to expand opportunities for homeownership;

(6) to provide every American community with a reliable, readily available supply of mortgage finance at the lowest possible interest rates; and

(7) to encourage tenant empowerment and reduce generational poverty in federally assisted and public housing by improving the means by which self-sufficiency may be achieved.

(Pub. L. 101–625, title I, § 102, Nov. 28, 1990, 104 Stat. 4085.)