Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is calling for the creation of a new federal entity to build construction of “social housing” and then sell those properties agencies and organizations that would manage them in “permanent affordability.”
Ocasio-Cortez, in a New York Times op-ed co-authored with Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) complained that “it’s becoming nearly impossible for working-class people to buy and keep a roof over their heads.” The lawmakers complained that the government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae (OTCQB: FNMA) and Freddie Mac (OTCQB: FMCC) were providing “large, corporate landlords” with Much of their “$150 billion in financial backing to the multifamily rental market every year,” but fail to require tenant protections, and they also complained the low-income housing tax credit used to incentivize affordable housing development “too often ends up in the hands of for-profit developers.”
Their solution is new legislation called the Homes Act, which would create a “federally backed development authority to finance and build homes in big cities and small towns across America. These homes would be built to last by union workers and then turned over to entities that agree to manage them for permanent affordability: public and tribal housing authorities, cooperatives, tenant unions, community land trusts, nonprofits and local governments.”
Under the Homes Act, rents would be capped at 25% of a household’s adjusted annual gross income, while “homes would be set aside for lower-income families in mixed-income buildings and communities.”
The financing of this “social housing construction” would derive from congressional spending and Treasury-backed loans, the lawmakers added, claiming this would make “financing resilient to the volatility of our housing market and the political winds of the annual appropriations process.” The Homes Act would also encourage more investment in public housing and the repeal of the Faircloth Amendment, which they claimed “prevents the construction of new public housing.”
The Homes Act is Ocasio-Cortez’s second housing bill introduced this year. In March, she teamed with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) on the Green New Deal for Public Housing, which also repealed the Faircloth Amendment while seeking to fund clean energy upgrades in public housing while mandating that any jobs created as part of a housing construction or renovation are unionized.
Photo: nrkbeta / Flickr Creative Commons
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Poor AOC, she really doesn’t understand housing, the market and economics. Where is Congress going to get this money, oh wait, she wants to take more of our hard earned money🤬
Social housing does not work, just look at Russia or the projects in large cities. We are not a communist country and hopefully we never become one!
Agreed! Fraud would destroy any chances as they could never manage a project like this.
Seems you didn’t read the article. Russia is our enemy and there’s nothing in Russia like AOC is proposing. There’s nothing communist about what AOC is proposing.
If you do t think that’s communism, you clearly don’t understand anymore than AOC does. That’s exactly what she’s proposing, permanent tenantship without ever owning. No money for that and it would never work long-term. The problem isn’t too little government money in housing, it’s too much and too much regulation.
This silly girl is SO stupid. Having title to a house is only the beginning of home ownership. We tried this around the turn of this century and it ended in a housing crash. Homes were sold to people who couldn’t afford them and didn’t understand the whole concept. And it took down the whole market. Renting and owning are two different concepts!
Another government entity to misuse moneys. The dishonesty and waste in government spending is not the answer.
The govt wants to be the land owners and now the realtors as well. This is another step to the 2030 WEF agenda… you’ll own nothing and be happy…
Let’s research the Faircloth amendment here as well
Why not bring back the old 235 and 236 program, that seemed to work well
Perhaps the money would be better spent teaching the homeless trades involved in home building, such that they can work and provide for themselves, and eventually fulfill the American Dream of home ownership.
Home ownership is a privilege, not a right. If you can not afford to buy a home, the likelihood of being able to maintain a home is slim. It only takes a few people in a neighborhood to fail to maintain the exterior before the downward spiral takes place. Then the government will pass a bill to give these people money to maintain their homes because of the unsafe conditions they live in. More tax money wasted!
Rental housing is for people who can not afford to buy and maintain a home.
Remove many of the regulations and let the free market do its job.
Good little socialists, who do not understand or believe that socialism has never worked love this idea. Pushing a socialist agenda leads to their ultimate goal of communism. This is what is unfolding in our country, in incremental steps so you (who are asleep) do not notice. Those of you who have bleeding hearts & believe everyone deserves their fair share, the playing field should be level for everyone, they’re only here (illegally) to have a better life will surely line up for the next vaccine.