Two more 2020 presidential candidates—former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg and former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick - released new details on their proposals to address the shortage of affordable housing in America. Now all presidential candidates except former Vice President Joe Biden have released housing plans.
Governor Patrick outlined his vision for equity in affordable housing in his newly released An Equity Agenda for Black Americans. Governor Patrick also has a broad proposal to address affordable housing and homelessness that includes more details, including increasing funding for the national Housing Trust fund; building and expanding on the housing voucher program and exploring new renters’ tax credits; and resuming implementation of the 2015 Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule that provides clear guidance to local governments on how fulfill their legal requirements to undo racial segregation, which the Trump administration is currently proposing to gut.
Mayor Bloomberg released on January 30 a new Plan to Tackle America’s Housing Affordability and Homelessness Crisis. The plan promises to “treat homelessness as a national emergency, double annual federal spending, and cut homelessness in half by 2025.” It would guarantee rental assistance to all extremely low-income Americans and “aims to create hundreds of thousands of new affordable housing units” through increased investments in the national Housing Trust Fund and Low Income Housing Tax Credits. In addition to helping 1 million Black Americans become first-time homeowners, the plan would address zoning barriers that impede the development of affordable housing; provide the needed capital to maintain public housing by streamlining the administration of the RAD program; tie federal housing funding to progress in reducing segregation; create a Housing Fairness Commission to test policies aimed at reversing the effects of discrimination; and curb discrimination by landlords, so that recipients are protected regardless of income source, sexual orientation, or immigration status.
Our Homes, Our Votes: 2020, NLIHC’s nonpartisan voter and candidate engagement project, tracks what 2020 presidential candidates have proposed on affordable housing and homelessness.
More information about what Governor Patrick has said on affordable housing and homelessness is available on his Our Homes, Our Votes 2020 candidate page.
More information about what Mayor Bloomberg has said on affordable housing and homelessness is available on his Our Homes, Our Votes 2020 candidate page.