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Democrats on the left have proposed a huge expansion of public housing, but policy experts say it isn?t the answer Housing policy has lurched into the national spotlight for the first time in decades in the past year, as most major Democratic presidential candidates have released formal plans for responding to the affordable housing crisis.
And while those plans have tackled everything from local zoning issues to homelessness, the left flank of the Democratic party is proposing one solution that hasn?t undergone a major legislative overhaul in 20 years: public housing.
In November, Rep. Ilhan Omar introduced the Homes For All Act, which calls for 8.5 million new public housing units to go with the 1,002,114 that currently exist. A week later, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez introduced Green New Deal for public housing legislation?cosponsored by Sen. Elizabeth Warren along with 23 other Congressional Democrats?that calls for a $172 billion investment in existing public housing units to retrofit them to be carbon neutral and energy efficient. ?Housing is a fundamental human right,? Omar told Curbed in a statement. ?It?s time we as a nation act like it and end the housing crisis once and for all.?
Both bills also include a repeal of the Faircloth Amendment, a 22-year-old add-on to the Housing Act of 1937 that prohibits any net increase in public housing units, and which has returned to the debate around housing affordabili...