Presidential candidates are increasingly focused on affordable housing, and this primary season has featured more proposals to address the nation’s housing affordability crisis than any before. Most recently, Former HUD Secretary Julián Castro joined other presidential hopefuls, including Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Kamala Harris (D-CA) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), in releasing a housing plan that calls for major investments in affordable housing.
Secretary Castro’s plan calls for $40 billion in annual funding for the national Housing Trust Fund (HTF), which could create nearly 3 million new deeply affordable apartments over 10 years. He proposes a renters’ tax credit to assist renters paying more than 30% of their incomes on housing, as well as improving and making Housing Choice Vouchers an entitlement for all very low-income households in need. The plan also includes provisions to ensure fair housing laws are implemented, support for homeownership, and more. Secretary Castro outlines his plan in a series of articles on his campaign website. He also previewed elements of his plan at an Our Homes, Our Votes, Our Iowa (a collaboration between NLIHC and the Polk County Housing Trust Fund) event in Cedar Rapids, IA on June 15 (see separate article in this week’s Memo to Members and Partners).
NLIHC’s Our Homes, Our Votes: 2020 is a nonpartisan project to keep candidates focused on affordable housing. The project’s new website tracks all candidates’ comments and proposals related to the housing affordability crisis. It is striking that all the housing proposals released so far call for $40 billion or more in funding for the HTF to build and preserve homes for the lowest-income people in America.
The Our Homes, Our Votes: 2020 website also offers a comprehensive, nonpartisan voter and candidate engagement toolkit with best practices and resources for advocates on everything from candidate questionnaires and town halls to voter registration and voter education.
Details of Secretary Castro’s People First Housing Plan can be found at:
Part I: Solving the Rental Affordability Crisis and Ending Homelessness
Part II: Providing Fair Housing to All Americans and Aligning Housing Policy with Climate Goals
Part III: Boost Homeownership and Hold Wall Street Accountable