People First Housing Platform

Part II: Providing Fair Housing to All Americans and Aligning Housing Policy with Climate Goals

Providing Fair Housing for All Americans

• Reinstitute the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule, the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s ability to enforce the Fair Housing Act and mechanism for combating discrimination in housing.
   
• Enforce the Fair Housing Act with the full power of the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity. Expand and empower the department to investigate the role of corporations, including banks and technology companies, and those who run them, in driving up the cost of housing.
   
• Prohibit discrimination in housing and denial of access to capital based on previous arrest or criminal records and support reintegration from the criminal justice system, as part of a broader effort to end consideration of criminal history in employment and access to government services.
   
• Defend housing protections for women by passing the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) and building on the progress made in 2016 to strengthen its protections for vulnerable women.
   
• Extend non-discrimination protections for members of the LGBTQ community in housing and employment through passing the Equality Act, which also combats discrimination against the LGBTQ community broadly.
   
• Reinstate and formalize the Gender Identity Rule to provide transgender and gender nonconforming people access to sex-segregated housing and shelter facilities on the basis of their gender identity.
   
• Ensure long-term support services are provided for an expanded Medicare program, including for individuals with disabilities and senior citizens.
   
• Support individuals with disabilities’ access to affordable housing units by:
  
  
  • Supporting the Office of Fair Housing and Opportunity in enforcing relevant parts of disability protections in housing;
     
  • Committing to the construction of affordable housing units for individuals with disabilities through all federal programs, including through the National Housing Trust Fund, the Capital Magnet Fund, and the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit; and
     
  • Ensuring individuals with disabilities have priority to occupy units designed for their needs.
     
• Support tribal sovereignty, housing innovation, and government-to-government communication. Establish a Tribal Intergovernmental Advisory Committee to increase communication with tribal leadership on housing programs.
  
  
  • Work with Congress to ensure full funding of Indian Housing Block Grant program, the Indian Community Development Block Grant Program program, and the Native Hawaiian Housing Block Grant.
     
• Reverse discriminatory policies currently under consideration by the Trump administration, including the ‘Public Charge Rule’ and the rule to prohibit ‘mixed-status’ immigrant families in public housing.
   
• Expand protections for homeowners residing in manufactured and mobile homes and actively prevent gentrification by working with state and local governments to improve oversight of rent increases and redevelopment that displaces families, supporting the renters in purchasing the land their homes reside on, addressing the effect of corporate practices that have displaced families in manufactured and mobile homes, and investigating the role of private equity and Real Estate Investment Trusts in displacing families and raising housing costs.
   
• Support aging in place for seniors, allowing them to stay in their homes and neighborhoods after retirement, including modifications of homes through Medicare to prevent falls and other hazards, and encouraging development that centers public-transit.

Revitalizing communities

• Combat the impact of gentrification and urban decay to communities and prevent displacement of residents.
  
  
  • Identify metrics to identify communities that are in the early stages of gentrification, and enact affirmative efforts to prevent displacement before it happens.
     
  • Use demonstrable efforts to prevent displacement due to gentrification as a consideration in awarding competitive grants for localities.
     
  • Provide additional forms of assistance designed to keep rents affordable and communities stable, including technical support and small business loans to support entrepreneurship.
     
  • Increase use of Small Area Fair Market Rents designations so that rental assistance can more quickly respond to rent increases and keep rents affordable.
     
• Constitute a federal initiative to target assistance to high-poverty communities, identifying communities through a competitive process that builds on the successes of previous programs such as the Choice Neighborhoods and Promise Zone initiatives.
   
• Expand access to capital and technical support for small businesses, a vital part of our communities. By providing $75 billion annually in additional loans through the Small Business Administration’s loan program, we would support an additional 150,000 small businesses each year, adjusting fees and loan guarantees to reduce risk and raising loan guarantee amounts.
   
• Develop more Live/Work communities that co-locate residences with work spaces using affordable housing programs like the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit. These plans promote urban growth and sustainable development, and foster transit-oriented development.
   

Aligning Housing and Community Planning Policy with Climate Goals

• Establish a $200 Billion Green Infrastructure Fund as part of a broader climate-conscious infrastructure plan that would bridge the $2 trillion infrastructure gap in the United States.
   
  • Support public transportation, energy efficiency building upgrades, climate resilience, a modernized energy grid that includes high-voltage direct current lines, energy storage, water conservation, public electric vehicle charging stations, and other investments through direct grants and concessional and non-concessional loans.
     
  • Part of a broader effort to combat climate change, achieve net-zero global greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, reduce U.S. emissions to at least half of 2005 emissions levels by 2030, and meet the promise of the Green New Deal.
     
  • The Green Infrastructure Fund would leverage private capital, support local jobs and communities, and include strong protections for unionized labor in construction, maintenance, and operation.
     
• Require climate sensitivity and ‘Carbon Scoring’ in future planning and government projects that would ensure any government project contributes towards meeting climate goals and sets benchmarks to reduce carbon impact and mitigate climate change, including net-zero carbon emission targets for new federal housing construction. The Environmental Protection Agency would be required to score all major federal government projects with their impact on our carbon goals.
   
• Ensure zoning reforms enacted through this plan further climate goals through higher density housing, transit-oriented development, incorporating resilience in new developments, and other city planning practices that lower commute times, diminish reliance on personal vehicles, reduce destruction by natural weather events, and lower carbon emissions.
   
• Establish Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery Assistance as a permanent program to help communities recover from natural disasters more effectively, and support long-term sustainable land use.