Harris’ Housing Plan Highlighted At DNC
By KIMBERLEY HAAS
Vice President Kamala Harris brought up housing during her speech at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
Harris was talking about her plan to create an “opportunity economy” where everyone has a chance to compete and succeed regardless of where they live.
“As President, I will bring together labor and workers, small business owners and entrepreneurs, and American companies to create jobs, grow our economy, and lower the cost of everyday needs like health care, housing, and groceries,” Harris said.
“We will provide access to capital for small business owners, entrepreneurs, and founders. We will end America’s housing shortage and protect Social Security and Medicare.”
Former President Barack Obama and current President Joe Biden mentioned Harris’ housing plan in their speeches at the DNC.
Obama said Harris understands that to make it easier for young people to buy a home, “we need to build more units and clear away some of the outdated laws and regulations that make it harder to build homes for working people in this country. That is a priority and she’s put out a bold new plan to do just that.”
Adrianne Todman, acting secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, spoke with Politico’s Economics Correspondent Victoria Guida at the convention. She said the reference by Obama was “phenomenal” but not surprising because housing is an important issue for Americans across the country.
In his speech, Biden said Harris and her team will tackle the housing affordability crisis.
“Folks, they’ll make housing more affordable, building three million new homes, providing $25,000 in down payment assistance for first-time home buyers, more than the $10,000 we approved,” Biden said.
Harris announced her housing plan during a speech in Raleigh, NC, on Aug. 16.
“Homeownership and what that means — it’s a symbol of the pride that comes with hard work. It’s financial security. It represents what you will be able to do for your children,” Harris said.
“And sadly, right now, it is out of reach for far too many American families. There’s a serious housing shortage in many places. It’s too difficult to build, and it’s driving prices up.”
Harris said that if she is elected, she will work in partnership with industry to build housing, both to rent and to buy. She also said her administration will work to take down barriers and cut red tape, including at the state and local levels.
“And by the end of my first term, we will end America’s housing shortage by building three million new homes and rentals that are affordable for the middle class, and we will do that together,” Harris said.
Harris said that while they work on the housing shortage, her administration will provide first-time homebuyers with $25,000 to help with the down payment on a new home.
Harris may have a bold plan for housing, but there are people who doubt it would work.
In an Aug. 20 opinion piece for The Washington Post, Columnist Megan McArdle wrote it is unlikely three million new homes could be built in the next four years.
“It’s not impossible to construct 750,000 extra homes a year — housing starts, which were about 1.2 million last year, hit 2.2 million at the peak of the housing bubble. But ramping up production to that level would take years, and might never happen, because the only real way to get there is via the one promise Harris will find hardest to keep — that is, to make it much easier for builders to build,” McArdle wrote.
She wrote that this volume of building might be possible if the government could speed legislation up and lower costs by streamlining red tape, but that is harder than it sounds, both politically and practically.
Others say Harris’ plan could bring both political parties together to solve one of the biggest economic challenges families currently face.
Jim Parrott, co-owner of Parrott Ryan Advisors and a nonresident fellow at the Urban Institute, teamed up with Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, for an opinion piece published in The Washington Post on Aug. 21.
“For all the controversy Harris’ plan will likely generate in an election year, it is precisely the sort of effort needed, both in its scope and its design. Indeed, it is one that both sides of the aisle should eventually find appealing, as it marshals the resources of the private sector to tackle a public policy challenge that plagues red and blue states alike,” they wrote.