Washington, D.C. — On Thursday, September 19, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) kicked off a discussion on the housing crisis at the Center for American Progress event “Building the Future: Innovative Solutions to the U.S. Housing Crisis.” They discussed their new bill, the Homes Act, and the urgent need to take action on housing affordability.
The Homes Act is designed to build new forms of affordable rental housing, and Rep. Ocasio-Cortez sounded the alarm on scarcity, saying: “The fact that we even have a housing market structure the way it is, where you have a single mom of two kids that has to bid against BlackRock or an Airbnb investor in order to put a roof over her family’s home, is the problem.”
Rep. Ocasio-Cortez went on to say that “when communities are also class-integrated … our ability to be a socially mobile country skyrockets” and that, through changing the structure of housing development by investing in alternative models, the United States can “develop and construct over 1 million housing units in this country that are primarily designed as a right, instead of a commodity that should go to the highest bidder.”
In discussion with Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, Sen. Smith made the case for renewing investment in social housing and reinvigorating housing supply: “If you truly believe that housing is a human right and that everybody has the right to a safe, secure, and dignified place to live—that gives them joy, that is something everybody is worthy of—then what you start to think about is how you can devote public effort to achieving that goal.”
To round out the summit, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Rohit Chopra outlined how his agency is taking action to help consumers take advantage of the lower interest rates announced by the Federal Reserve yesterday. Director Chopra announced he is “exploring whether to amend existing mortgage rules to streamline the refinancing process and to reduce junk fees in closing costs in ways that will help so many middle-class borrowers.” Director Chopra went on to explain how the CFPB is lowering costs for families: “The effects of yesterday’s rate cut may take time for families who are in crisis now. So our actions when it comes to mortgage services and what we’re doing on rental fees and more are helping consumers now.”
A new national survey of 1,223 likely U.S. voters conducted by Data for Progress from September 13 to 16, 2024, on behalf of the Center for American Progress, finds that Americans overwhelmingly believe there is a housing shortage and that new policies are needed to build more affordable homes and rentals as well as to hold investors and corporations accountable for depleting supply and increasing prices for consumers. Specifically, the poll finds:
- 77 percent of voters believe America has a housing shortage. Notably, voters are more likely to say the “affordability of housing” is getting worse than they are to say the same regarding the “impacts of immigration” or “crime.”
- 83 percent of voters agree that it is a problem that there aren’t enough homes because the various costs to build a new home are too expensive. Separately, equal shares of voters—roughly 7 in 10—living in urban, suburban, and rural communities agree that it is a problem that “there aren’t enough homes because zoning rules limit the number and kind of homes we can build in too many neighborhoods.”
- 60 percent of voters believe it is a serious problem that “private equity firms and big investors are buying up too many homes to profit from them as rentals.”
- Voters support progressive solutions to address the housing crisis: 69 percent of voters support providing up to $25,000 in down-payment assistance for first-time homebuyers who have paid their rent on time; 80 percent of voters support building and repairing 3 million affordable homes and rental units nationwide; 78 percent of voters support preventing large corporate landlords from using algorithms and technologies that limit competition and lead to price gouging.
Video of conversations from the housing policy summit is available online at “Building the Future: Innovative Solutions to the U.S. Housing Crisis.”
For more information or to speak with an expert, please contact Sarah Nadeau at [email protected].