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Presidential candidates have proposed massive investments in the National Housing Trust Fund?but what is it" The affordable housing crisis is affecting almost everyone in America. First-time middle-class homebuyers can?t afford to buy homes. High-income earners in expensive coastal markets have trouble making rent. Low-income earners struggle with rent everywhere.
This has made housing affordability a national election issue for the first time in decades. Democratic candidates for president have released detailed housing plans that attack the problem from a number of different angles, but one policy prescription stands out?massive investments in the National Housing Trust Fund (HTF).
Even some people versed in housing policy may be unfamiliar with the Housing Trust Fund. Launched in 2016, it is used by states to build and rehabilitate affordable housing for the lowest-income Americans. So far it receives about $200 million in annual funding, but Democratic candidates have proposed increasing that figure to a whopping $40 billion or more per year in hopes of building or keeping up the estimated 7 million new affordable housing units?whether publicly or privately owned?needed for the lowest-income Americans. ?In communities with high vacancy and lower cost, what?s needed is something to bridge the gap between what people earn and what rent actually costs,? says Diane Yentel, CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC). ?You do that thr...