Mayor Pete Buttigieg joins other Democratic presidential candidates in releasing bold plans to address the nation’s affordable housing crisis. All those who have run for the Democratic nomination, with the exception of former Vice President Joe Biden, have released affordable housing plans, most centering on the needs of the lowest-income households. Mayor Buttigieg’s plan—released yesterday—does likewise, aiming to increase the overall supply of available, affordable, and accessible homes by over 2 million.
Mayor Buttigieg’s proposal would invest $154 billion over ten years in the national Housing Trust Fund (HTF) to support the construction, maintenance, and operation of 1.4 million new affordable homes for people with the greatest needs. It would also direct the Department of Treasury and HUD to collaborate with state housing financing agencies to ensure strong HTF investments in rural and native housing, housing for domestic violence survivors, and housing for individuals with disabilities.
Mayor Buttigieg’s plan would invest in the long-underfunded public housing program, providing up to $50 billion to modernize and repair public housing. The plan would also institute “aggressive controls to ensure that local public housing authorities monitor and eliminate lead hazards” and invest in public housing technology improvements.
The plan would increase investments in the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program by over 50% over five years to build more than 500,000 affordable homes.
Mayor Buttigieg would seek to address homelessness for families with children through a series of initiatives such as emergency rental assistance, rapid-rehousing, tenant education, and cooperative housing development.
There is a nationwide shortage of 7 million homes affordable and available to the lowest-income renters, and just one in four deeply poor families that qualify for housing assistance receives it. According to a recent poll commissioned by NLIHC’s Opportunity Starts at Home multisector affordable homes campaign, 85% of Americans believe ensuring everyone has a safe, decent, affordable place to live should be a “top national priority.” Eighty percent said Congress and the president should “take major action” to make housing more affordable for low-income people. Mayor Buttigieg’s housing plan is another example of presidential candidates responding to voters’ calls for action on this critical issue.
NLIHC’s nonpartisan Our Homes, Our Votes: 2020 candidate and voter engagement project is elevating solutions to the nation’s housing crisis in the presidential campaign and tracking what all the candidates have to say about housing and homelessness. Learn more at: www.ourhomes-ourvotes.org
Read Mayor Buttigieg’s housing plan at: https://p4a.us/housing