The vigorous contest of Democrats seeking the 2020 presidential nomination has produced excellent policy proposals to address major issues. Senator Bernie Sanders released his Housing for All” plan.  This is a summary from the Sanders campaign:

WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders unveiled his Housing for All plan, a bold proposal to guarantee every American – regardless of income – a fundamental right to a safe, decent, accessible, and affordable home. 

“There is virtually no place in America where a full-time minimum wage worker can afford a decent two bedroom apartment. At a time when half of our people are living paycheck to paycheck, this is unacceptable,” said Sen. Sanders. “For too long the federal government has ignored the extraordinary housing crisis in our country. That will end when I am president. My administration will be looking out for working families and tenants, not the billionaires who control Wall Street.”

In America today, there is a shortage of 7.4 million affordable homes for the lowest-income renters and more than 18 million families in America are paying more than half of their limited incomes on housing and utilities. The federal government should be expanding housing programs, but Donald Trump wants to cut them by $9.6 billion, or 18 percent.

Sanders’ Housing for All plan would instead end the housing crisis, build millions of affordable housing units, implement a national rent control standard, revitalize public housing, protect tenants, combat gentrification, end predatory lending and modern day redlining,  and end homelessness by:

Building nearly 10 million homes through the National Affordable Housing Trust Fund, social housing, Community Land Trusts, and other housing programs. 

Fully funding tenant-based Section 8 rental assistance at $410 billion over the next ten years and making it a mandatory funding program for all eligible households.

Enacting a national cap on annual rent increases at no more than 3 percent or 1.5 times the Consumer Price Index, whichever is higher, to help prevent the exploitation of tenants at the hands of private landlords.

Ending exclusionary and restrictive zoning ordinances and replacing them with zoning that encourages racial, economic, and disability integration that makes housing more affordable.

Doubling McKinney-Vento homelessness assistance grants to more than $26 billion over the next five years to build permanent supportive housing.

Ending the mass sale of mortgages to Wall Street vulture funds and thoroughly investigating and regulate the practices of large rental housing investors and owners.

Implementing legislation to prevent abusive “contract for deed” transactions and using existing authority to protect communities of color, which for too long have been exploited by this practice.

Sanders’ proposal will be fully paid for by establishing a wealth tax on the top one-tenth of one percent. It will cost $2.5 trillion over the next decade. 

The details of the Sanders housing plan can be read here.  

See also:

SANDERS, OCASIO-CORTEZ ANNOUNCE THE GREEN NEW DEAL FOR PUBLIC HOUSING ACT