President Joe Biden announced on March 31 his priorities for the “American Jobs Plan,” an approximately $2 trillion infrastructure and recovery package that includes robust resources for housing. The “American Jobs Plan” includes $213 billion “to produce, preserve, and retrofit more than two million affordable and sustainable places to live…through grants, formula funding, targeted tax credits and project-based rental assistance.” The proposal includes $40 billion to make much needed repairs to public housing, resources to support homeownership and weatherize homes, and new incentives to encourage communities to eliminate exclusionary zoning and harmful land-use restrictions.
While details are still vague, the proposal presents a tremendous opportunity to advance many of NLIHC’s HoUSed campaign’s bold housing solutions to address the urgent housing needs facing extremely low-income households, including Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC), people with disabilities and other historically marginalized people.
Congressional leaders will now work to fill in the details, set priorities, draft, and advance legislation to enact the proposal into law. The White House and Democratic leaders have expressed interest in passing an infrastructure bill as early as this summer. NLIHC will work to ensure Congress includes in any infrastructure spending plan comprehensive resources to address homelessness and housing poverty, including these priorities from the NLIHC-led HoUSed campaign: an expansion of rental assistance to every eligible household; $70 billion to repair public housing and make energy-efficient upgrades to existing public housing stock; and at least $40 billion annually for the national Housing Trust Fund to build and preserve homes affordable to people with the lowest incomes.
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 the “American Jobs Plan” at: https://tinyurl.com/4m6a4cxc
Learn more about NLIHC’s HoUSed Campaign at: https://nlihc.org/housed