Efforts to solve the affordable housing crisis do not go unnoticed

Thursday, March 21, 2024 | 2 a.m.

President Joe Biden visited Las Vegas on Tuesday to announce an aggressive multiagency “strike force” targeting unfair and illegal pricing in consumer goods and services, including measures to get skyrocketing housing costs under control and increase the supply of affordable housing. In a show of unity across branches of the government, Biden was joined on stage at a community center near the Strip by U.S. Reps. Steven Horsford, Susie Lee and Dina Titus.

All four elected deserve praise for working to lower housing costs and increase the housing supply in major urban areas across the country as well as in rapidly growing rural communities throughout the West.

The growing shortage of affordable housing is a challenge that plagued lawmakers and prospective homeowners for the past 50 years. That’s when the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 changed financing and regulatory requirements to give private developers greater ability to opt out of affordable housing elements and gave local governments more power to block development of affordable housing projects within their communities.

In the aftermath of the 2007 subprime mortgage crisis, Republican President George W. Bush took the first steps to address the national shortage of affordable housing by creating the National Housing Trust Fund (NHTF).

Now, Biden and his Democratic colleagues in Congress are taking the next steps.

Biden’s proposals include a mortgage relief credit that would provide homeowners with a $10,000 tax credit over two years, effectively saving families $400 a month on their mortgage payments — essential savings for a generation of first-time homebuyers that has already been struck by multiple recessions, a global pandemic and skyrocketing costs for major investments like housing and education.

Biden is also calling on Congress to provide up to $25,000 in down payment assistance to first-generation homebuyers, saying the proposal would help 400,000 families nationally purchase their first home. This proposal is especially impactful, as homeownership is one of the few well-established paths to multigenerational financial wealth and stability.

Importantly, the steps to help first-time buyers will also increase home values for existing owners because the measures will increase demand by allowing more buyers to participate in the market. Everyone wins.

The president also pledged to do more to end the “legacy of discrimination” that leads homes in majority Black neighborhoods to be valued 20% lower than equivalent homes in majority non-Black neighborhoods.

“It’s exacerbated the racial wealth gap and held back Black and brown families, and it’s simply wrong,” Biden said. We agree.

In addition to Biden’s direct proposals, Democratic members of Nevada’s congressional delegation also announced bold new strategies to tackle one of the most vexing challenges in residential real estate: corporate speculation.

Standing onstage with his colleagues, Horsford delivered an impassioned speech about nonoccupant speculators who, according to a news release from his office, now buy nearly 1 in 7 homes in the United States. In the 4th Congressional District of Nevada that Horsford represents, corporate speculators bought 17% of homes in 2021. In certain rapidly growing markets, that number rises to nearly 1 in 4 residential home purchases. According to Las Vegas Realtors, the percentage of homes purchased by corporate speculators has reached as high as 34% in recent months, among the highest percentages in the entire nation.

“Companies with no interest or connection to these communities are then raising rents to levels to price out the hard-working families that have lived in these areas for generations,” Horsford said in the release. “This is a national trend that the data shows is targeting communities of color and hurting single mothers in greater numbers.”

In response, Horsford recently introduced the HOME Act, which he says would “empower the U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary to investigate these corporations and take action to keep families in their homes.”

Functionally, the legislation allows for government oversight of the housing market to ensure transparency and fair competition for Americans trying to purchase a home, with special protections for occupant consumers during housing emergencies. It empowers the secretary of HUD to monitor home purchases, analyze data on the housing market and investigate allegations of price manipulation or significant reductions in housing capacity. Businesses found to be engaging in price manipulation or “gouging practices” in homeownership or rental markets could be subject to fines or limits on investments by government-backed loan providers such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The fines would be directed back into the National Housing Trust Fund, promoting further investment in affordable housing stock.

Each of the proposals is worthy of serious consideration, and meaningful progress to address the nation’s housing crisis is desperately needed.

The American Rescue Plan and other COVID relief bills helped keep millions of Americans from losing their homes, but those programs have almost all since expired.

Without leadership from Biden and action from lawmakers like Horsford, Titus and Lee, the dream of homeownership would be unattainable to much of today’s middle class.

It’s difficult to imagine the Republicans who currently control Congress allowing Biden to score significant wins on housing affordability in an election year. However, given that many of America’s lowest-income communities are in rural districts represented by GOP lawmakers, we hope Republicans will put partisanship aside for the good of their constituents and help address the crisis of affordable housing. If they don’t, we hope voters will remember that this week, right here in Las Vegas, Biden and Democratic lawmakers came to the table with tangible solutions to help make rental housing more affordable and help more Americans achieve their goals of homeownership.