President Biden released on April 28 the “American Families Plan,” a $1.8 trillion companion bill to the $2.5 trillion “American Jobs Plan.” The American Families Plan would invest in education, childcare, and paid leave, among other priorities. The proposal calls for making community college free, expanding access to Pell grants, investing in universal preschool, expanding nutrition assistance for children, providing paid family and medical leave, and permanently extending enhancements to the childcare tax credit, earned income tax credit, and Affordable Care Act.
Notably missing from the American Families Plan is a proposal to make rental assistance universally available to all eligible households. Currently, only one in four households eligible for and in need of rental assistance receives assistance. Expanding rental assistance is a core element of President Biden’s housing platform, central to any successful strategy to solve the housing crisis.
While the American Families Plan does not propose housing investments, the “American Jobs Plan” includes an historic $213 billion investment in the country’s affordable housing infrastructure. This investment should include the HoUSed campaign’s priorities of $45 billion for the national Housing Trust Fund to build, preserve and rehabilitate apartments affordable to the lowest-income people, and $70 billion to repair and preserve public housing throughout the country. These investments are included in the “Housing is Infrastructure Act” released by House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters (D-CA; see Memo, 4/19). A final infrastructure spending bill must include these critical investments and an expansion of rental assistance to all eligible households in need.
Take action by signing your organization on to a national letter urging Congress to support robust investments in affordable housing at: https://tinyurl.com/zbau4kee
Learn more about NLIHC’s HoUSed Campaign at: https://nlihc.org/housed