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Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vermont) wants the nation to invest $500 billion in affordable housing, take new steps to prevent price manipulation by landlords, and remove zoning barriers that prevent home construction. I hope.
Balint has signed several bills since being elected to Congress in 2022. But the housing bill introduced on Monday is Mr. Balint’s most ambitious bill to date, communications director Sophie Pollock said. This complex proposal takes aim at many of the forces that are pushing housing out of reach for middle- and low-income Americans.
“Far too many Vermont families are facing the devastating burden of a housing crisis,” Balint said in a statement about the bill, which she called the Community Housing Act (CHA). “CHA provides creative solutions and big, bold investments. “Hundreds of billions of dollars in housing investments. Because we need it.”
Before heading to Congress, Balint worked as an affordable housing advocate at the Vermont State House, where he served for eight years. Many of the factors that make it difficult for most people to buy or rent a home in Vermont are similar issues in other states.
According to Balint’s bill, the average rent in the U.S. will increase by 24% between 2020 and 2023, and more than half of low- and moderate-income people with a mortgage will now spend 30% to 50% of their income on housing. It is said that he is spending it to pay his bills. His bill calls for $44.5 billion in new spending in each fiscal year from 2024 to 2033.
“The state can’t do this alone,” Seth Leonard, managing director of community development for the Vermont Housing Finance Association, said Monday. He participated in a press conference held by Balint in Bellows Falls on Monday. VHFA administers several federal housing programs.
“As we move into a world of nothing, [federal COVID-19 funding] Additional federal investment, if available, will be important,” Leonard said in an interview.
Mr. Balint also urged his colleagues in Congress to support the Housing Trust Fund, which would provide a dedicated and permanent source of funding for affordable housing, and a variety of other efforts to close the gap between people’s incomes and expenses. We are requesting support for the financial structure. For the house.
Her bill calls for new real estate and asset management software to help antitrust enforcement officials prevent price manipulation in the rental housing market. Dozens of tenants signed an antitrust lawsuit in 2022 accusing software company RealPage of aiding and abetting landlord collusion to raise rents, according to ProPublica.
The Vermont Legislature has been working in recent years to eliminate local ordinances that impede housing construction, and Balint wants to do the same on a national scale. Her bill proposes the creation of a HUD Zoning Office to streamline local zoning and improve community development in the areas of sustainability, fair housing, and local efficiency.
Housing bill aims for local control in Vermont town
Housing bill aims for local control in Vermont town
Written by Anne Wallace Allen
housing crisis
Pollock said the bill has 15 co-sponsors.
Construction prices for new homes in Vermont have doubled since 2018, Leonard said. In response, the Scott administration and lawmakers directed hundreds of millions of federal COVID-19 funds toward affordable housing.
“But the barriers to construction have become so high that the year-on-year increase in resources has not kept pace,” Leonard said.
“She’s trying to fill that gap,” he said of Balint. “There is a proven case for this type of federal program, and she is also proposing new areas for investment.”
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