The House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Select Revenue Measures held a hearing on “How Middle Class Families are Faring in Today’s Economy” on February 13. The subcommittee discussed the impacts of the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017” and the economic struggles middle-class families face in the current economy.
Several members of the subcommittee mentioned barriers to homeownership, but only Representative Suzan DelBene (D-WA) discussed the affordable housing crisis as a major issue. She noted that over 235,000 people in her state pay more than 50% of their monthly income on rent. Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, said that high rents and home prices are driven by the lack of supply of affordable housing. He mentioned that Congress has several promising proposals to address this issue, including increased funding for the national Housing Trust Fund, the first new housing resource in a generation devoted to creating and preserving housing for extremely low-income people.
More information on the hearing, including a recording, is at: https://bit.ly/2UZYz5G