Infrastructure Summer: A Surprisingly Radical Housing Bill
Practically all the solutions to diminishing the high cost of housing, from nudges to public options, are present in the housing piece of the reconciliation bill.
by Alexander Sammon
September 16, 2021
The Build Back Better Act, Democrats’ reconciliation bill featuring most of President Biden’s legislative priorities, is hard to sum up succinctly. It’s a climate bill, featuring a historic and sorely needed investment in the green transition; it’s a family care bill, featuring paid family leave, universal pre-K, and a home health care program; it’s a health care bill, with lowered prescription drug prices, Obamacare exchange subsidies, a solution for Medicaid recipients in non-expansion states, and dental care under Medicare. All of this still subject to negotiation by House Democrats and the Senate, of course, which will cause everyone watching to pull their hair out.
One of the few things the bill has not gotten much attention for is its housing program. But that’s not because the housing proposals are lacking. The bill features a substantial investment in a number of housing-related priorities that run the gamut from technocratic nudges favored by neoliberals to significant resources directed toward activist-favored solutions, including money for new public-housing developments and community land trusts.
Running through the housing provisions introduced for markup by the House Financial Services Committee, which wrapped up this week, shows an interesting all-of-the-above approach to one of the most vexing problems in the American economy, the soaring cost of housing. The bill features $327 billion in new spending on housing, with the bulk of that money going to public housing and housing vouchers, as well as some low-income development. All told, a best-case scenario could see the bill cutting homelessness in half within five years (though it features that new, favored Democratic construction, in that some of it expires in 2026 and will need to be made permanent by a future Congress).
https://prospect.org/infrastructure/building-back-america/infrastructure-summer-surprisingly-radical-housing-bill/
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