KEMP PLEDGES CAMPAIGN TO HELP NATION'S POOR

HUD NOMINEE CALLS HOMELESSNESS TOP PRIORITY

Jack Kemp, admitting that he feels "a little bit like a blank slate" on the subjects he would be expected to master as secretary of housing and urban development, told a Senate panel yesterday that, if confirmed, he expects to seek out new funds for a host of programs to aid the poor.

Quoting Martin Luther King Jr. and the late senator Robert F. Kennedy (D-N.Y.), Kemp described himself as a "progressive" but "pragmatic" conservative who would revive federal involvement in production of housing for low- income people, lobby for tax-code changes that would spur economic development and encourage public-private partnerships that will make houses more affordable for first-time buyers.

"I want where necessary to fight for the full funding or for increased funding or for the reordering of priorities," Kemp said, adding that the Department of Housing and Urban Development should assume the role of "national catalyst" for programs that address housing problems.

Kemp described homelessness as a "national tragedy" that would be his "highest priority immediately." The Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act, he said, will be fully funded in the revised budget President Bush will send to Congress Feb. 9.

"Funding, while necessary, is not sufficient in and of itself," Kemp said. "We need to work together to provide a complete and effective safety net consisting of both public and private efforts that will provide not only basic shelter, but also will pave the way to jobs, job training, permanent housing, health care and human dignity."

Kemp, who voted against the McKinney Act when he was a House member, said yesterday that he would implement the measure's shelter, emergency food and other housing assistance provisions "with vigor."

The hearing before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs was interrupted by a handful of protesters from the Community for Creative Non-Violence, a Washington group that focuses on the homeless. Waving a banner that read "Housing Now," the demonstrators shouted the hearing into a recess. But the protest, which ended when its leaders were arrested, was the only jarring moment in three hours of friendly speeches and questions from the committee.

Typical of the bipartisan nature of the compliments that pervaded the proceedings was Sen. Alan Cranston's (D-Calif.) comment that Kemp would bring "the energy and abilities that are sorely needed to bring new life" to HUD. Kemp was introduced to the panel by Sens. Alfonse M. D'Amato (D-N.Y.) and Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.), both from his home state.

In a departure from Reagan administration policy, Kemp told D'Amato that he opposes assessing fees for the use of government-administered mortgage services.

Without criticizing the Reagan era's dismantling of many of the programs he plans to revive, Kemp said he hopes to "greenline" depressed urban areas that have been redlined out of the investment market.

"We've created 19 million jobs in eight years, but unemployment in Overtown is 30 percent," said Kemp, who met with Miami leaders in the aftermath of rioting in the Overtown and Liberty City neighborhoods recently. "Unemployment in Liberty City is 29 percent," he said.

Committee Chairman Donald W. Riegle Jr. (D-Mich.) said he plans to vote quickly and positively on Kemp's nomination.

Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Tex.) said: "I figure with all the good things they're saying about you, if they'd said that last year, you'd be president."

Kemp, who ran for president last year, responded: "Where were they when I needed them?"

Articles appear as they were originally printed in The Washington Post and may not include subsequent corrections.