The core of Kamala Harris\u2019s housing platform is a simple idea: America needs more houses. But the vice president\u2019s pitch \u2014 to help build 3 million homes and incentivize local governments and builders to join in \u2014 stands apart from how major political candidates typically talk about housing, if they do at all.<\/p>\n
To housing experts, the Democratic nominee\u2019s approach has inched closer and closer to what\u2019s known as \u201cYIMBYism.\u201d The slogan stands for \u201cYes In My Backyard,\u201d as a rebuttal to what\u2019s known as NIMBYism, for \u201cNot In My Backyard.\u201d It generally encompasses people who support boosting the number of homes available and putting them in more places. Think apartment buildings alongside single-family houses, and more public transportation to support denser neighborhoods.<\/p>\n
Harris doesn\u2019t use the acronym to describe herself. And there are plenty of YIMBYs who take a different approach, such as trying to withhold state or federal funding from localities that don\u2019t take part in efforts to build more. But Harris\u2019s emphasis on tackling America\u2019s housing problems with more supply is a new approach for Democrats focused on voters\u2019 concerns around affordability and a telltale part of the American Dream. Speaking on the popular \u201cCall Her Daddy\u201d podcast, which is aimed at young women, Harris this week said \u201chousing is too expensive, and we need to increase the housing supply.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTo seem compelling in a political year, you can\u2019t do a bunch of small stuff people can\u2019t remember. You have to go big,\u201d said Jim Parrott, a housing adviser under the Obama administration who also advises the Harris campaign. \u201cIf she is a YIMBY, it\u2019s a warm, fuzzy, carrot kind. Not a stick YIMBY.\u201d<\/p>\n
Democrats began focusing on housing policy last year, realizing the headwinds of running to keep the White House and Senate in a country overwhelmed by rising costs. President Joe Biden began addressing the problem in March with his State of the Union address, during which he announced a plan to build and preserve more than 2 million homes, along with moves to use antitrust law against corporate landlords who were indirectly coordinating in rental pricing and eliminate title insurance fees. He went further in July, in the wake of his campaign-ending debate performance, rolling out a plan to cap rent increases and make more public land available for housing before he dropped his reelection bid.<\/p>\n
Democratic pollsters encouraged the moves, with the Navigator Research poll, an independent survey read by policymakers, presenting attacks on \u201cgreedy landlords\u201d as an easy win, particularly among younger voters who Democrats have struggled to keep in the fold. An April 2024 Gallup poll also found the \u201ccost of owning\/renting a home\u201d to be the second most important financial problem for families, next to the more generic \u201chigh cost of living\/inflation.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Harris took over the ticket in late July, she immediately shifted her public rhetoric \u2014 and the campaign\u2019s paid advertising \u2014 to focus more on combating high costs. She made her efforts to take on housing costs in California as a centerpiece of her biography, and talked about her mother saving up to buy her family\u2019s first house.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, a serious housing shortage is part of what is driving up cost,\u201d Harris said at a Las Vegas campaign event last month. \u201cSo we will cut the red tape and work with the private sector to build 3 million new homes, and provide first-time home buyers with $25,000 down-payment assistance so you can just get your foot in the door. You\u2019ll do the rest.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harris\u2019s plans also include expanding the low-income housing tax credit \u2014 a key program for constructing and rehabilitating rental housing for low-income households \u2014 and creating a $40 billion \u201cinnovation fund\u201d to help local governments build more affordable housing. She has also talked about taking on corporate landlords and capping rent increases.<\/p>\n
All of these proposals would require approval by Congress and might be difficult to push through under a divided government. And even if regulations are enacted, some economists have worried that the turbocharged buyer credits would juice demand even more, and ultimately push prices higher by giving purchasers more money to spend.<\/p>\n
Home and rent prices took off on the heels of the pandemic, when people suddenly clamored for the few options available. In the for-sale market, mortgage rates shot up in 2022 and 2023 as the Federal Reserve raised borrowing costs to tackle inflation, leaving many first-timers shut out. (The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage peaked at nearly 8 percent last year, and has since fallen to near 6 percent as the Fed lowers rates.)<\/p>\n
Donald Trump\u2019s campaign has taken a vastly different approach to housing issues. During last week\u2019s vice-presidential debate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) blamed soaring housing costs on a spike in immigration over the past few years, saying \u201ckicking out illegal immigrants who are competing for those homes\u201d would help affordability. In a statement, RNC spokesperson Taylor Rogers said Trump would secure the border, \u201cban mortgages for illegal immigrants who drive up the price of housing, and eliminate federal regulations driving up housing costs.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen President Trump is back in the White House, he will cut the cost of new homes in half, open portions of federal land with ultralow taxes and regulations for large-scale housing construction and end the housing affordability crisis that Kamala Harris created,\u201d Rogers said.<\/p>\n
The campaign\u2019s claims that mass deportations would open housing supply has been widely debunked by economists, who argue that recent immigrants \u2014 many of whom rent and work in low-wage jobs \u2014 live in a very segmented part of the housing market. Experts and builders also caution that strict immigration restrictions would deal a serious blow to the construction industry, which relies on foreign-born labor and is crucial to home building.<\/p>\n
No federal policy proposals can address all aspects of the housing market; state and local zoning laws have major influence over what houses can be built and where. And some proponents of YIMBYism note that there is a wide spectrum of progressive housing policies, and Harris\u2019s plans don\u2019t cover it all.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do appreciate their spin on all of this, but I think when you dig into Harris\u2019s actual policy proposals, they are not a push for unbridled market rate supply by any means,\u201d said Shamus Roller, executive director of the National Housing Law Project. He added that he would also like to see Harris focus more on the poorest people who are just getting by, including seniors and people on fixed incomes, who face some of the steepest affordability challenges.<\/p>\n
Ahead of Harris\u2019s visit to Nevada last month, several hundred advocates with the Center for Popular Democracy Action and its affiliated groups marched in Las Vegas to draw attention to the housing situation in that battleground state. They have also hosted rallies in New York, Pennsylvania and elsewhere over the past few weeks to call for more funding for affordable housing and stronger tenant protections.<\/p>\n
While the groups are backing Harris, organizers say she still needs to focus more on issues facing renters, many of whom are young and people of color \u2014 key parts of the coalition that helped Biden win in 2020. Some of Harris\u2019s proposals \u2014 like $25,000 first-time buyer credit \u2014 are \u201cgreat for people that are in a situation to be buying a home, but that doesn\u2019t really help the people that are really struggling, the people that are renting,\u201d said Athena Katsarus, who is involved with affiliate group Make the Road Nevada.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe lost our savings. We lost everything we put away because of the pandemic and the economic situation, and a lot of us are still trying to rebuild that,\u201d Katsarus said. \u201cIt\u2019s been really hard for people to bounce back, and some just can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The core of Kamala Harris\u2019s housing platform is a simple idea: America needs more houses. But the vice president\u2019s pitch \u2014 to help build 3 million homes and incentivize local governments and builders to join in \u2014 stands apart from how major political candidates typically talk about housing, if they do at all. To housing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":10750,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}