SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
housing
Ocasio-Cortez, Smith Push Bill to Create Social Housing Authority
"Because we believe that housing is a human right, like food or healthcare, we believe that more Americans deserve the option of social housing."
Sep 18, 2024
"It's becoming nearly impossible for working-class people to buy and keep a roof over their heads. Congress must respond with a plan that matches the scale of this crisis."
That's according to U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.), who on Wednesday introduced the Homes Act in a New York Timesopinion piece and an event with supporters of the proposal on Capitol Hill.
"Because we believe that housing is a human right, like food or healthcare, we believe that more Americans deserve the option of social housing," the pair wrote in the Times. "That's why we're introducing the Homes Act, a plan to establish a new, 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."
"Our housing development authority wouldn't be focused on maximizing profit or returns to shareholders," the congresswomen continued. "Rent would be capped at 25% of a household's adjusted annual gross income. Homes would be set aside for lower-income families in mixed-income buildings and communities. And every home would be built to modern, efficient standards, which would cut residents' utility costs. Renters wouldn't have to worry about the prospect of a big corporation buying up the building and evicting everyone. Some could even come together to purchase their buildings outright."
In addition to establishing the new authority under the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the bill would repeal the Faircloth Amendment, which prevents the use of federal money for building new public homes. Under the new plan, construction would be funded by congressional spending and Treasury-backed loans.
"In New York, the average worker would need to clock in 104 hours a week to afford a one-bedroom apartment," Ocasio-Cortez said in a statement. "This country is staring down a full-blown housing crisis. A crisis where affordable housing is slipping out of reach."
"This bill would create more than 500,000 jobs and create 1.25 million affordable housing units," she noted, declaring that "everyone deserves a place to call home."
It's not just New York City where lower-wage people are struggling to keep a roof over their heads. Smith pointed out that "more than 90% of workers cannot afford a modest one-bedroom apartment. Americans across the country are bidding for homes against the wealthiest financial firms and they're losing."
"We have a severe housing crisis," she stressed. "The private market cannot meet this moment on its own. The Homes Act meets peoples' needs through social housing."
As Jacobin's Samuel Stein wrote Wednesday:
The housing system sketched out in the Homes Act looks nothing like what we are used to in the United States. Though we have an important social housing legacy, we have never normalized decommodification as the cornerstone of our housing system.
Introducing legislation like the Homes Act does not accomplish that goal in and of itself, but it offers us a concrete depiction of what that transition could look like. It also highlights the severe disjuncture between what our housing and urban planning system does right now—promote private profits in real estate while minimizing the public provision of housing—and what we need it to do.
The goal of legislation like this is not to pass it immediately, since no sober person would expect the current U.S. Congress to line up in support. Nor is the goal to supplant the messy work of organizing with the schematic and technical language of legislation. Instead, the point is to inspire organizing: to show that the status quo is not the only way our housing could operate, to give tenant organizations a concrete and affirmative vision to build toward, and to offer socialist candidates for office a platform to run on.
The bill to create a social housing authority—introduced less than two months out from the U.S. general election—is backed by the Center for Popular Democracy (CPD) and its affiliates from across the country.
"Working families are being forced to make sacrifices in order to pay the skyrocketing cost of keeping a roof over their heads, while corporate landlords and Wall Street executives are getting even richer," said CPD co-executive directors Analilia Mejia and DaMareo Cooper. "This legislation provides a clear alternative to for-profit housing. It creates a framework to make community-owned, permanently affordable green social housing a reality."
Advocates from both sponsors' states also spoke out in favor of the bill.
"In Greater Minnesota, counties and towns don't have staff to build affordable housing projects, financing is another huge issue. We don’t have as many philanthropic organizations or financial institutions as urban areas," explained Noah Hobbs, policy director at One Roof Community Housing in Duluth. "This bill is the first real investment we've had in years. We're incredibly proud to endorse this legislation."
Aisha Hernandez, secretary of the Coalition to Save Affordable Housing at Co-op City in the Bronx, said that "cooperative housing gave me the ability to co-own my home. A few years ago, my neighbors and I came together to ensure our housing stays affordable, that our management is working in the interest of homeowners and prevent any corporate takeover of Co-op City."
"We are co-owners, not at the whims of corporate landlords," Hernandez added. "I want my fellow Americans to have the same access to housing that co-op has afforded me. This bill has the ability to do that. So let's get it done."
Keep ReadingShow Less
DOJ Files Rent-Fixing Lawsuit Against Corporate Landlords' Go-To Software Firm
"Today is a good day for renters and families and a bad day for predatory landlords," said one advocate.
Aug 23, 2024
Executives at the property management software company RealPage claimed they had the "greater good" in mind when they offered corporate landlords a price-fixing algorithm service, said the U.S. Department of Justice as it filed a lawsuit Friday against the firm—but the scheme allegedly drove rental costs up in communities across the country, contributing to the housing crisis.
The antitrust lawsuit, filed with attorneys general from states including California and Colorado, accused RealPage of using confidential data about its clients to algorithmically determine the highest price renters would pay, using its AI software.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and other officials said the company has violated antitrust laws by providing the service, which gives corporate landlords recommended rental prices and allows them to align prices with one another instead of having to compete.
Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter said the lawsuit is "best understood in the words of RealPage's own executives," who have said the company's software allows landlords to "drive every possible opportunity to increase price, even in the most downward trending or unexpected conditions."
"RealPage tells landlords that it would prefer everybody succeeding versus essentially trying to compete against one another," said Kanter. "But that's not how free markets work. Competition among landlords, not RealPage, should determine prices for renters."
Garland added that "Americans should not have to pay more in rent because a company has found a new way to scheme with landlords to break the law."
As Common Dreams reported in June, RealPage and the corporate landlords that rely on it has come under the scrutiny of watchdogs including Accountable.US, which found that the six largest property management firms brought in a combined $300 million in increased profits in the first quarter of 2024, thanks largely to rent hikes.
The windfall came as rent prices have skyrocketed by more than 31% since 2019, while wages have gone up by just 23%.
RealPage's algorithm is alleged to have helped fix rent prices for about 16 million rental units across the country, said Accountable.US.
"Today is a good day for renters and families and a bad day for predatory landlords," said Lindsay Owens, executive director of the progressive think tank Groundwork Collaborative. "The Department of Justice is right to take on the affordability crisis that RealPage has been supercharging. Algorithms are being used to unfairly drive up prices for housing, meat, and more. This price-fixing must be stopped."
Caroline Ciccone, president of Accountable.US, said Friday's lawsuit shows that "the Justice Department sees evidence of a major rental price-fixing conspiracy by RealPage that extends to metro areas around the country."
"We've documented how many of the same landlord companies that were sued in the initial rent fixing lawsuit have boasted of massive profits after jacking up rents," said Ciccone. "Any property company that uses RealPage in one of these states should face a serious probe. No renter in America should be price gouged under a potentially illegal rent fixing scheme."
Accountable.US added in a social media post that "while rents soared, RealPage executives bragged about how their software could 'maximize' profits, even in the face of a housing crisis."
Andrea Beaty, research director for the Revolving Door Project, said RealPage's actions have "left tenants across the country paying the literal price of corporate greed, even in the midst of a global pandemic."
"This lawsuit will hopefully usher forth renewed corporate accountability in the rental market beyond RealPage, which is far from the only corporation capitalizing on tenant's struggles to live in safe and affordable homes," said Beaty. "We hope that in addition to the bipartisan set of eight state attorneys general suing RealPage, even more attorneys general will sign on in response to RealPage's actions to drive up rental costs in communities in their states."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Harris to Target Predatory Wall Street Landlords With Four-Year Housing Plan
The Democratic nominee is expected to endorse a crackdown on algorithmic price-setting by big landlords and an end to tax breaks for corporate investors that buy up single-family homes.
Aug 16, 2024
Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris on Friday is set to outline a four-year housing plan that would promote the construction of 3 million new housing units, provide substantial down-payment aid to first-time homebuyers, and strip away tax incentives for corporate investors that
purchase single-family homes and drive up prices to pad their bottom lines.
Harris'
proposals to tackle the nation's worsening housing crisis are part of a broader economic agenda that the vice president will lay out in a speech Friday afternoon in North Carolina.
Harris, who recently pledged to "take on corporate landlords and cap unfair rent increases," is expected to urge Congress to pass a pair of bills that would crack down on algorithmic price-setting by big landlords and bar corporate investors who buy up 50 or more single-family rental homes from taking advantage of tax breaks, building on President Joe Biden's push for corporate landlords to cap rent hikes.
A recent report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that just 32 institutional investors owned a combined 450,000 single-family homes in the U.S. and the five largest investors owned nearly 300,000 homes. Institutional investors control 25% of the single-family rental housing market in Atlanta, Georgia, according to the GAO.
Another major component of Harris' housing plan calls for providing up to $25,000 in down-payment assistance to "working families who have paid their rent on time for two years and are buying their first home."
Harris' campaign said the plan would "expand the reach of down-payment assistance, allowing over 4 million first-time buyers over four years to get significant down-payment assistance."
"Trump likes to talk about being a builder, but when he was president, he simply never got it done. Now, his Project 2025 agenda will make it more expensive to rent or buy a home," the Harris campaign said Thursday. "Year after year during his presidency, Trump tried to gut rental assistance programs. New home construction slowed while Trump was in office—tightening the housing crunch and enabling his wealthy friends to profit."
Housing justice advocates applauded the emerging details of Harris' plan, arguing that persistent tenant organizing has helped elevate the hardships of renters to the top of the Democratic Party's priority list for 2024 and beyond.
"How did these get on the agenda? Organized renters making good trouble," the Alliance for Housing Justice wrote on social media.
In recent months, progressives and tenant organizers have worked to make housing central to the 2024 campaign as renters across the U.S. struggle to make their monthly payments and as sky-high prices, elevated interest rates, and supply shortages box out first-time homebuyers. Housing costs accounted for roughly 90% of the overall increase in the Consumer Price Index last month, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
A recent research brief by Russell Weaver of Cornell University stressed that tenants impacted by the nation's housing affordability crisis are a "large, untapped political base—especially for Democrats and progressives."
"Candidates who campaign on housing affordability and tenant protections have the potential to significantly boost renter turnout, which could be decisive in tightly contested races," Weaver said.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular