The American Housing and Economic Mobility Act probably has no chance of passing into law, but it's still the most substantial gesture toward housing policy by a member of Congress since the subprime crisis of 2008.
Madeleine Carlisle describes a bill released today by Senator Elizabeth Warren (D - Massachusetts) as "perhaps the most far-reaching assault on housing segregation since the 1968 Fair Housing Act."
The American Housing and Economic Mobility Act, as the bill is titled, would the estate tax to generate revenue for a $500 billion to be spent on affordable-housing programs over ten years. The bill also "attempts to strip away the zoning laws that made developing housing so expensive in the first place," according to Carlisle.
Much of Carlisle's coverage places the bill in context of Senator Warren's hypothetical presidential ambitions. "The sheer scale of the bill, along with its focus on structural racism and government responsibility, places Warren’s brand of populist progressivism on full display," writes Carlisle. "An undertaking of this magnitude is sure to energize her base. But would its combination of tax increases, grants to homeowners, government incentives, and bank regulation make housing more affordable to working- and middle-class people?"
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