Washington, D.C. – America’s serious lack of affordable housing is affecting urban, suburban and rural communities across the country, and the 2020 presidential candidates are weighing in with proposals to address it. Tom Steyer is the latest to announce a plan to confront the nation’s housing affordable crisis.
Mr. Steyer proposes expanding the supply of affordable homes by investing $47 billion per year in the national Housing Trust Fund (HTF) to serve the lowest-income households in America and by increasing Low Income Housing Tax Credit allocations by 50% over five years, with a 4% credit floor for renovation projects. He would also increase rental assistance to low-income households by expanding access to the Housing Choice Voucher Program and by providing relief to low-income renters through a quarterly renters’ tax credit. The plan proposes measures to combat homelessness, including an emergency fund to cover unforeseen expenses that would keep families from making their rent payments and putting them at risk of eviction.
There is a nationwide shortage of 7 million homes affordable and available to the lowest-income renters, and just one in four deeply poor families that qualify for housing assistance receives it. In 99% of counties in the U.S., a full-time minimum-wage worker cannot afford a one-bedroom rental home at the fair market rent, and seven out of the ten fastest-growing occupations in the U.S. do not pay enough to afford even a modest one-bedroom rental. As the housing crisis worsens, voters are demanding a response from presidential candidates. Tom Steyer’s housing proposal represents another example of presidential candidates recognizing that bold action is needed to address the nation’s housing affordability crisis.
NLIHC’s nonpartisan Our Homes, Our Votes: 2020 candidate and voter engagement project is elevating solutions to the nation’s housing crisis in the presidential campaign and tracking what all the candidates have to say about housing and homelessness. Learn more about the project at: www.ourhomes-ourvotes.org
Read Tom Steyer’s Housing Plan at: https://tinyurl.com/swt5ye9
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NLIHC has launched the nonpartisan Our Homes, Our Votes: 2020 voter and candidate engagement project to raise the issue of affordable housing in the 2020 elections, to urge candidates to discuss how they will deal with the crisis, to track their comments and proposals, and to engage more low-income renters in the voting.