Statement: Biden housing actions
This morning, the Biden administration released a slate of new actions designed to increase the supply of homes in the United States. We strongly approves of this plan and urges swift implementation of its many pieces in order to help alleviate America’s housing shortage.
American housing prices have grown in recent decades, primarily because of a lack of housing supply in the urban areas where people most want to live. The Biden administration’s plan directly calls out this lack of supply as the core issue and takes concrete actions to address the problem. These actions include:
Using federal funds to incentivize zoning reform in local communities
Prioritizing dense and near-transit development in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill
Reducing the cost and paperwork needed to use federal funds for housing projects
Calling for immigration reform which would ease labor shortages
Updating HUD policy to make it easier to finance and build inexpensive modular housing
Ensuring financing availability is equal for multi-family homes and ADUs, not just single-family homes
These actions will increase the supply of housing in America in the medium and long term, leading to lower housing costs. Lower housing costs benefit Americans in many ways - they put money in everyone’s pockets, lower inflation, increase mobility, and more. We applaud these moves from President Biden and calls on Congress and state and local governments to also focus on increasing the supply of housing in America.
The Center for New Liberalism is a network of over eighty chapters and tens of thousands of individuals worldwide working to advance a liberal society. We analyze policy proposals, mobilize our network to support those proposals, build alliances with like-minded groups, and establish strong relationships with local, state and federal elected officials.
###
Media Contact: Colin Mortimer; colin@cnliberalism.org