A home is a platform for stability, good health, upward mobility, and opportunity in America. But for too many families, owning a home is out of reach, and the high cost of paying rent has pushed them to a breaking point. Our nation faces a shortage of over 7.2 million affordable homes available to low-income renters. Nearly 40 million middle- and lower-income households are “cost-burdened,” spending more than 30% of their income on rent or a mortgage, including 18 million households that pay more than half of their income on housing. The lack of available affordable homes, particularly within relatively close proximity to employment, puts homeownership out of reach for families struggling to pay for the high costs of health care, child care, and student debt. 

Despite this shortage, federal housing support heavily subsidizes high-income households at the expense of working families and vulnerable populations. We need to overhaul our federal housing policy so that every American can afford a stable home in a thriving community. 

In addition to building more affordable housing, we must consider the connection between transportation costs and housing. It’s not enough to simply build or refurbish millions of affordable units in neighborhoods with concentrated poverty or in places far away from high-quality schools and good-paying jobs. It is imperative that we lower the full cost of living in good homes in thriving communities to ensure that people are able to afford a decent life.