Homes Guarantee Agenda 2025

Inflation was front and center in the presidential elections, and the single biggest monthly cost for tens of millions of people, whether they are a tenant or homeowner, is housing. Everyone in the United States should have safe, accessible, sustainable, and permanently affordable housing: a Homes Guarantee. Our nation is facing a housing crisis. From big cities to small towns and rural communities, families are struggling to pay their rent or mortgage, and far too many are living on the brink of eviction. This has led our country to the largest homeless crisis since the federal government began tracking these numbers. 

Corporations and the politicians that serve them have worked for decades to create a cycle of cutting taxes for corporations and the wealthy and then using smaller revenue streams to defund public housing and subsidized housing programs and other social services. At the same time that real wages for poor and working people have stagnated, wealth inequality has widened and the U.S. has grown an ever richer billionaire class and corporations with insatiable greed. The resulting hyperinflation in rent in the past few years has turned a crisis into an outright humanitarian and political emergency.  

Millions of Americans are homeless, living on the brink of homelessness, or are unable to provide basic necessities to cover housing costs. People feel abandoned by our government and hopeless for any change. Local governments do not have the financial resources to fix this crisis.

We saw the recent impact the federal government can have via the $20 billion of housing investments in the American Rescue Plan Act. These critical funds helped expand cities’ abilities to tackle homelessness and prevent evictions, and build and maintain affordable housing. Now those funds are drying up and programs and services will return to pre-pandemic levels unless Washington DC and state capitols take action.

There is a way forward. To tackle this crisis, housing champions across local, state and federal governments must embrace three fundamental principles. Thankfully, there are recent precedents and examples:

• Immediate relief & financial support for states and localities: We must act quickly to protect more Americans from losing their homes while rapidly re-housing those who already have lost theirs. To do this, local and state governments need emergency funds they can use directly or to fund local service providers. Specific interventions like housing vouchers, and increased operating funds for local nonprofits can all be utilized to stop the bleeding in urban, rural, and suburban communities. Learning the lessons of COVID funding are key. ARPA funds and the Emergency Rental Assistance Program are great examples of funding streams and programs that can provide immediate relief and support to communities to use in ways they know will work for their local context, with requirements to ensure the federal funds achieve their fullest goals.
  
• Long-term investment to end the national affordability crisis: We must develop a long-term solution to this crisis. Historically the federal government has invested far more in the development and operations of affordable housing. We need these same, bold investments now, and governments from the local to federal level can lead the way. Here we can learn from the major climate investments made during the Biden Administration. The kind of long-term investments that may not provide immediate relief, but set our nation on track for long-term health.
  
• Protecting people from corporate greed: Across the country, landlords are using inflation as an excuse to hike rents at unprecedented rates. Median rents in the U.S. have risen nearly 20% in the last two years alone. Rent hikes disproportionately impact Black and Brown households, making this a pressing racial justice issue. Today, the rental market is more consolidated than ever before, with corporate landlords amassing properties across state lines and using price-fixing algorithms like YieldStar to raise prices. The federal government spends billions of dollars subsidizing these landlords via tax breaks, low-interest federally backed mortgages, and grants. The incoming Administration will likely lean further into this simplistic and flawed approach. 

Homes Guarantee Policy Planks

Prevent Evictions and End Homelessness

To address our nation’s eviction and homeless crisis, local communities and states need immediate, emergency funding; alongside long-term investments into the development and operation of deeply affordable housing, public housing, and supportive housing for those in need of additional services. In the short-term, we call for federal support to state and local governments through block grants that will allow big cities and small towns to combat their eviction and homelessness crisis at the local level. We call for a permanent commitment to programs like Emergency Rental Assistance, alongside efforts to increase affordable housing through the development of more public housing units, hotel-to-housing conversions, mobile home park acquisitions, and flexible housing voucher programs. Congress should tax the ultra-rich and allocate additional dollars. This new revenue can expand permanently affordable housing by acquiring privately-owned properties in disrepair and providing vital services to help re-house individuals with the necessary wraparound support. Most importantly, we need a financial and political commitment at every level of government to eradicate homelessness. 

Control and Stabilize Rents

To control and stabilize rents, we propose capping rent increases at 3% or the rate of inflation, whichever is lower, for homes receiving tax benefits. In many states, rent control and stabilization require changing state laws that preempt a locality from passing this type of legislation. But if there was ever a mandate and crisis for these kinds of laws, now is the time. This should be paired with the creation of a National Landlord Registry and Eviction Database to ensure transparency in property ownership and eviction practices. 

Reinvest in Public Housing

We need significant reinvestment in public housing, addressing our shortage of available long-term, deeply affordable units and long-standing capital and repair backlogs in existing public housing: $80 billion for repairs and modernization. If the incoming Administration is serious about addressing the needs of those who feel marginalized, this type of investment would go a long way. Additionally, as part of a longer-term vision, we support ambitious investments over the next decade to transition public housing into zero-carbon, energy-efficient homes, enhancing the quality of life for millions of residents while promoting sustainability.

Create Social Housing

As part of a long-term vision on the federal level, we support the creation of a Social Housing Development Authority, with $30 billion in annual funding, to spearhead the expansion of public-affordable housing (as called for in the Homes Act). These efforts should prioritize public sector investments over privatized solutions like the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC), which has proven ineffective in sustaining long-term tenancies that stabilize households and address the growing housing crisis. In the absence of federal action, we urge state and local governments to lead the way and innovate this type of housing, as Montgomery County, Maryland, and Seattle, Washington, have done. 

Protect Tenants

We advocate for public investment in the Right to Counsel on the state and local level, ensuring that tenants facing eviction or disputes with landlords have access to legal representation. Immediate public funding is also crucial for eviction prevention, supporting local governments and nonprofits with vouchers for direct payments to keep people housed and prevent displacement. Cities and counties should pass  Tenants Bills of Rights drafted by tenants. The bill of rights should include rent regulation, good cause eviction protections, a ban on source of income discrimination, and a right to habitability.

Repair Existing Housing Stock

As part of our long-term vision, we propose a $150 billion national Whole-Homes Repair Program, modeled after Pennsylvania’s initiative, to address the critical need for home repairs nationwide. The current $30 million Department of Energy Weatherization Readiness Fund is insufficient, given that federal estimates indicate a need of at least $150 billion for necessary repairs. Expanding this fund would help resolve health and safety issues, enabling low-income households to take full advantage of energy efficiency and decarbonization incentives under the Inflation Reduction Act.

Pay Reparations for Housing Discrimination

The United States has never fully addressed the lasting impacts of Native genocide, slavery, and the deeply racialized nature of housing and land ownership systems. The federal government must consider reparations to account for the historical and ongoing theft of land and wealth from Black and Indigenous communities, considering events like redlining, Jim Crow, and urban renewal. The framework for reparations should calculate losses and involve both government and corporate actors in compensation efforts. Additionally, the government should offer mortgage relief to Black and Brown households targeted by predatory lending and provide grants and zero-interest capital to support wealth-building in these communities. 

End Land and Real Estate Speculation

To end land and real estate speculation, housing must be de-commodified and treated as a basic necessity and civil right rather than an investment. Speculation allows investors to profit from housing while leaving properties vacant or neglected, destabilizing communities and inflating housing costs. Local and state governments need to consider measures such as land value uplift taxes, flipping taxes, and taxes on out-of-state transactions to disincentivize speculative practices. Additionally, a blight and vacancy tax would penalize property owners who allow homes to fall into disrepair. These policies would promote stable, affordable housing and curb predatory investment behaviors. Lastly, as climate crises increase, we need new, standing policies that prevent post-disaster land speculation rather than urging an individual governor to put a moratorium in place after a disaster.