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Housing isn’t just the number one cost for most families. It affects the jobs we can get, the schools our kids can go to, and the kind of communities we can live in.
So if our government gets housing policy wrong, it hurts millions of families. And it has.
For decades, Washington has cut investments in housing for middle-class and lower-income Americans — even when rents shot up and up.
And decades of outright discrimination by the federal government denied Black families the same kinds of homeownership opportunities available to white families. Since housing is how so many families build up wealth over time, that’s a part of why there’s such a wide racial wealth gap.
We’ve got to get this right.
So this week, I’ve reintroduced my American Housing and Economic Mobility Act to bring down rents by 10% across America, create 1.5 million new jobs, and take the first steps to address the racial wealth gap — all without adding a dime to the deficit.
Add your name to become a citizen-cosponsor today, and join the fight to pass this bill.
The housing crisis is all around us.
The Black homeownership rate today is nearly the same as it was in 1960 when housing discrimination was legal. Rural housing is falling apart. Housing costs are skyrocketing. Too many people still haven’t been able to recover from when Wall Street’s greed crashed the economy and destroyed the wealth of too many families.
We’re not going to solve our housing crisis by nibbling at the edges. We need to tackle it head on — with big, comprehensive solutions that match the size of the problems we have. That’s what my plan does.
My plan will bring down rental costs by 10% by addressing the root cause of the problem: a severe lack of affordable housing supply.
We’ll fill in the hole in the marketplace by creating millions of new housing units and helping roll back needlessly restrictive local zoning rules.
And we’ll take a first step to fight the racial wealth gap by creating a first-of-its-kind down-payment assistance program for people in formerly redlined areas — where African Americans were denied mortgages for decades.
There’s more. We’ll ban housing discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, veteran status, and the source of one’s income, like a housing voucher. Landlords shouldn’t be able to reject tenants based on what they look like, how they identify, or who they love. Period.
We’ll empower communities instead of Wall Street by preventing private equity funds from scooping up properties, foreclosing on homeowners, and then turning around to charge new tenants exorbitant rents.
Now, you might be wondering: How would we pay for all this? Simple. Right now, a married couple only pays a dollar of estate taxes if they have a fortune of $22 million or more. I would lower that threshold to $7 million — which is where it was when George W. Bush left office — and raise the tax rates above that threshold so ultra-millionaires and billionaires pay a larger share. Those changes affect only 14,000 of the wealthiest families.
Think about that: By asking 14,000 wealthy families to pay a bit more, we can reduce rents by 10% for millions of families and create 1.5 million good new jobs in construction and housing rehab.
Every American deserves a safe and affordable place to live. I’ll keep fighting. But that won’t be enough — Washington needs to hear your voice, and the voices of millions of Americans demanding action.
Add your name to our petition: Become a citizen co-sponsor and help fight back against America’s housing crisis:
https://my.elizabethwarren.com/housing
Thanks for being a part of this,
Elizabeth
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