U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris delivers a speech on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, United States, Monday, July 22, 2024.
Shen Ting | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Harris’ record on housing issues
As California Attorney General, Harris Drafted and helped pass California Homeowners Bill of Rights; This is a set of laws designed to protect homeowners from unfair practices. California Homeowners Bill of Rights become law January 1, 2013.
Harris $18 billion deal struck Part of nationwide multi-state settlement benefiting thousands of homeowners who lost their homes to fires improper 2012 Foreclosure or Fraud.
As a senator, Harris introduced the Rent Relief Act in 2017 2018a bill that would provide tax credits to renters Earn less than $100,000 More than 30% of income goes to rent and utilities.
Harris refils second variation of bill 2019including a mechanism Tax credits are paid monthly from the Treasury to qualifying households. The latter version also caps the credit at 100% of the small area’s fair market rent, rather than 150% of the FMR.
Harris last month declare Recipients of $85 million in grants under Pathways to Eliminating Barriers to Housing (PRO Housing), a first-of-its-kind program from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development designed to increase construction activity and lower housing and rental costs for U.S. households
The news follows Harris’ announcement in May Budget $5.5 billion Work through HUD to advance affordable housing, invest in economic growth, build wealth, and address homelessness in communities across America.
The policies come as the country faces rising homelessness and the heavy costs of buying or renting a home. In 2023, the number of homeless people reached a record 653,100, up from 256,600 the year before. according to Report by the Joint Center for Housing Studies, Harvard University.
“Has the potential to do a lot of good”
The overall goal of the Biden administration’s latest housing policy is to increase the supply of affordable housing and lower costs for homebuyers and renters.
Experts say Harris has been involved in developing Biden’s housing policy and her campaign is likely to continue a similar housing blueprint.
“Overall, it does look like affordable housing, and zoning has been a topic she’s been talking about for a while,” said Jacob Channel, senior economist at LendingTree. “If they continue to follow through, The Biden administration’s path, I think, has the potential to bring a lot of benefits.”
As the odds of a Harris candidacy began to increase, people started talking about a policy Harris originally proposed during the 2020 presidential campaign: middle class elevating act.
bill would provide eligible middle- and working-class Americans with a refundable tax credit of up to $3,000 per person, or up to $6,000 per married couple filing a joint tax return.
Some experts pointed out enhance bill For renters, it may be better than Increase rent cap by 5% Biden proposed in mid-July.
this proposal Calls on Congress to limit rent increases to 5% for landlords with 50 or more existing units or risk losing federal tax breaks.
“The concern with rent caps is that housing supply will change,” said Francesco D’Acunto, associate professor of finance at Georgetown University.
Economist and philosophy professor Karl Widerquist said that while a rent cap might lead consumers to believe that prices won’t rise above a certain amount, it could lead to negative consequences, such as landlords taking their properties out of leases withdraw from the market.
Channel explains that landlords who lose their tax breaks can still raise rents, and that the program will exclude new construction and those undergoing major renovations.
DaQuinto said the tax credit doesn’t create the same distortions as a rent cap, and it also targets the negative effects of rent inflation.
To be sure, Harris’s Raising the Middle Class Act has Received pushback in the past. Widerquist said that while it’s not a perfect policy, the LIFT bill is “essentially an expansion in the right direction.”
