[1]Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for Congress

Stop almost anyone on the street today and you’ll hear we’re in a housing
crisis.

In most American counties, minimum-wage workers can’t afford to rent even
a modest one-bedroom apartment. Working families are bidding against the
world’s biggest financial firms for homes.

It’s becoming nearly impossible for working-class people to buy and keep a
roof over their heads.

There is another way: social housing. And today, Alexandria and Senator
Tina Smith introduced legislation to build millions of Americans a safe,
comfortable, and affordable place to call home — with the security and
dignity that come with it.

Read more about their plan in the op-ed below, and if you can, [ [link removed] ]make a
$5 donation to power Alexandria and Tina's continued fight
to ensure that housing is a human right →

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[2]New York Times headline:[3]Opinion / Guest Essay: Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez and Tina Smith: Our solution to the Housing Crisis

Stop almost anyone on the street today and you’ll hear we’re in a housing
crisis. In most American counties, minimum-wage workers can’t afford to
rent even a modest one-bedroom apartment. Working families are bidding
against the world’s biggest financial firms for homes. On top of it all,
people living in public housing complexes across the country are
increasingly exposed to inhumane conditions after years of federal neglect
and underinvestment.

It’s becoming nearly impossible for working-class people to buy and keep a
roof over their heads. Congress must respond with a plan that matches the
scale of this crisis.

For generations, the federal government’s approach to housing policy has
been primarily focused on encouraging single-family homeownership and
private investment in rental housing. The mortgage-interest deduction
provides roughly $30 billion in tax write-offs to homeowners annually. In
addition to their support of the mortgage market, Fannie Mae and Freddie
Mac provide up to $150 billion in financial backing to the multifamily
rental market every year, but much of it goes to large, corporate
landlords. These lucrative loans come with very few tenant protections or
labor requirements. And the largest affordable housing incentive our
government offers — the low-income housing tax credit — too often ends up
in the hands of for-profit developers.

Outsourcing development to the private market leaves affordable housing
subject to the boom-and-bust cycle of private investment. What’s more, the
federal government relinquishes the oversight needed to protect tenants
from abusive landlords and racial discrimination.

The result is a housing market where corporate landlords make record
profits while half of America’s 44 million renters struggle to pay rent.
For a generation of young people, the idea of home has become loaded with
anxiety; too many know they can’t find an affordable, stable place to
rent, let alone buy.

Why is this happening? For decades, thanks to restrictive zoning laws and
increasing construction costs, we simply haven’t built enough new housing.

There is another way: social housing. Instead of treating real estate as a
commodity, we can underwrite the construction of millions of homes and
apartments that, by law, must remain affordable. Some would be rental
units; others would offer Americans the opportunity to build equity. These
models of rent caps and homeownership are already working around the
world, such as in Vienna, and in some parts of the United States.

In Congress, the two of us represent very different parts of the country,
but New Yorkers and Minnesotans have both benefited from social housing.

The Electchester complex in Queens and Co-op City in The Bronx today house
over 50,000 New Yorkers. Co-op City stands as not only one of the largest
housing cooperatives in the world — with its own schools and power plant —
but also the largest, naturally occurring retirement community in the
country, a testament to its financial and social sustainability.

In Minnesota, trusts, such as Saint Paul’s Rondo Community Land Trust,
give people the chance at more affordable homeownership, because the
homeowners don’t buy the land; instead, it’s held in trust and leased to
homeowners on a long-term, renewable basis. The model has expanded across
Minnesota, in rural and suburban communities alike.

Because we believe that housing is a human right, like food or health
care, we believe that more Americans deserve the option of social housing.
That’s why we’re introducing the Homes Act, a plan to establish a new,
federally backed development authority to finance and build homes in big
cities and small towns across America. These homes would be built to last
by union workers, and then turned over to entities that agree to manage
them for permanent affordability: public and tribal housing authorities,
cooperatives, tenant unions, community land trusts, nonprofits and local
governments.

Our housing development authority wouldn’t be focused on maximizing profit
or returns to shareholders. Rent would be capped at 25 percent of a
household’s adjusted annual gross income. Homes would be set aside for
lower-income families in mixed-income buildings and communities. And every
home would be built to modern, efficient standards, which would cut
residents’ utility costs. Renters wouldn’t have to worry about the
prospect of a big corporation buying up the building and evicting
everyone. Some could even come together to purchase their buildings
outright.

To fund social housing construction, our development authority would rely
on a combination of congressional spending and Treasury-backed loans,
making financing resilient to the volatility of our housing market and the
political winds of the annual appropriations process.

Our bill would also invest in public housing and repeal the Faircloth
Amendment, which prevents the construction of new public housing. Passed
in 1998, with the support of both parties, the amendment helped entrench a
cycle of stigmatization and disinvestment. Our legislation would reinvest
federal money in local public housing authorities to fund the backlog of
much-needed repairs.

We know that housing looks a lot different in Bemidji, Minn., than in The
Bronx. It shouldn’t be a one-size-fits-all approach. That’s why our bill
would task local governments, unions and established local nonprofits with
developing homes that blend seamlessly into the landscape of the town and
fit the needs of the people living in them.

Research from New York University, the University of California, Berkeley,
and the Climate and Community Institute estimates that our bill could
build and preserve more than 1.25 million homes, including more than
850,000 for the lowest-income households.

We can’t wait for the private market alone to solve the housing crisis.
This is the federal government’s chance to invest in social housing and
give millions of Americans a safe, comfortable and affordable place to
call home — with the sense of security and dignity that come with it.

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Thank you for reading,

Team AOC

Alexandria and Tina are fighting to prove that housing is a human right,
like food or health care, and for working-class people across the country
to have a brighter, more secure, future.

[ [link removed] ]Will you split a $5 contribution today between our
campaigns so that we can continue fighting for social, economic,
environmental, and racial justice for all?



[ [link removed] ]Contribute $5




 


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