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[[caption]] A great tennis enthusiast, Sen. Brooke, is the perennial chairman of Oak Bluffs Annual Tennis Tournament. The pic shows him awarding a Miller Brewing Co. trophy to Joseph R. Mitchell, Jr. of Boston, Mass. for winning the Men's Singles matches. In picture are Mrs. Mitchell, Senator Brooke, Joseph, Jr., Judge Joseph Mitchell, Sr., his opponent and Eyre Saitch of Miller Brewing Co. [[/caption]]

older cities which have the most urgent needs for neighborhood revitalization.

Public Housing

Senator Brooke has fought for the right of lower-income Americans to decent housing and for the preservation and revitalization of communities in our older cities, and he knows that public housing has made a major contribution to housing for millions of families who would have had no other source of adequate shelter.

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[[caption]] Sen. Brooke with grandchild [[/caption]]

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[[caption]] Sen. Brooke addresses National Urban League Convention. [[/caption]]

Brooke has sought increased funding for the construction and rehabilitation of public housing. He has responded to those critics of the program who only cite his well-publicized "failures" pointing to the continuing demand for public housing. "There are low vacancy rates and long waiting lists for public housing throughout the country," Brooke said. "The poor need homes. We can't turn our backs on them."

In 1969, he authored the so-called "Brooke Amendment" which provides that no public housing tenant may pay more than 25% of his or her income for rent. And he has beaten back challenges to the "25% of income" rule from both Congress and the Executive Branch.

The latest HUD statistics show that some 60% of the public housing units are now occupied by minority persons and 40% of the public housing units are occupied by elderly persons on relatively fixed incomes. This recent shift in occupancy toward the elderly poor and the lowest-income families, particularly minority families, has been accompanied by substantial increases in operating costs for these projects and federal operating subsidies for local housing authorities have become essential to 

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