Former U.S. Representative John Delaney (D-MD) joins a growing list of Democratic presidential candidates calling for increased investments in affordable homes for those with the greatest needs. Mr. Delaney announced his Cities Fair Deal Plan, a ten-point proposal to help cities and urban communities thrive, on July 25. Among other things, the proposal calls for increased federal funding for affordable housing, including $7 billion per year for the national Housing Trust Fund to provide homes for the lowest-income people in America.
As the nation’s housing crisis worsens, constituents are demanding presidential candidates respond. Mr. Delaney’s plan proposes $125 billion in affordable housing investments to help low-income families afford rent and stay in their homes as well as measures to roll back local policies preventing the construction of new affordable homes. Mr. Delaney’s plan also includes measures to boost entrepreneurship and business creation, establish universal healthcare and pre-kindergarten education, reform the criminal justice system, invest in infrastructure, and end predatory lending practices.
John Delaney’s affordable housing proposals represent another example of presidential candidates and members of Congress increasingly confronting the nation’s housing crisis head on with bold solutions. While candidates are talking about the nation’s shortage of affordable homes and their plans to address it on the campaign trail as never before, the moderators of the last two Democratic presidential debates failed to directly ask the candidates what they would do about the crisis. NLIHC and our partners are calling on the moderators of the third debate not to repeat this omission. Join a letter urging them to ask the candidates about their affordable housing solutions here.
NLIHC’s nonpartisan voter and candidate engagement project, Our Homes, Our Votes: 2020, will raise the issue of affordable housing in the 2020 elections, urge candidates to discuss how they will deal with the crisis, track their comments and proposals, and engage more low-income renters in the voting process. Learn more at: www.ourhomes-ourvotes.org