Housing

Housing should be a human right

From New York to Georgia the housing crisis all across this country is crushing middle class and poor Americans, reducing the prospects and quality of life for younger generations. For too long now the ideal of home ownership for young adults which was once commonplace has become an increasingly impossible dream for newer generations. According to the World Economic Forum, among households headed up by someone born in the 1960’s, 60% owned their homes by age 35. Compare that rate to the modern day today where only 36% of those 35 and under own their own homes and we can begin to paint a picture of gross negligence at best or malevolence at worst on the part of government officials.

Here in the 5th district, we also suffer from problems with rent or finding affordable housing. In just our district, for the people that are homeowners, over 50% of renters spend more than 30% of their income on rent. This problem is further exacerbated by the fact predatory investors buy up affordable homes, artificially inflating rents in the process, and the Clinton-Era Faircloth amendment passed previously by status quo democrats blocks federal investment into new public housing.

What Congress can do

Cory will fight to repeal the Faircloth amendment that prohibits federal spending on new public housing. If elected to Congress, he will immediately co-sponsor the Homes for All Act, which will invest over $800 billion to build over eight million public housing units across the country. He will fight to restore the $300 billion housing package for down payment assistance that was in Build Back Better and will fight to institute federal rent caps and stronger tenant protections. He will seek to foster a national conversation on how we can bring existing rent rates down. The general idea must be to increase the supply of affordable housing in order to decrease the cost of rent and home buying.