Biden Housing Supply Action Plan

Biden Housing Supply Action Plan

Closing the housing supply gap within the next 5 years

White House Housing Supply Action Plan: With home and rental prices increasing at an unprecedented rate and supply falling short of demand, the Biden Administration has created a plan to build more affordable housing and close the housing supply gap within the next 5 years.

His plan includes incentives for land use and zoning reform, programs rewarding states and communities for implementing new affordable housing units, preserving multifamily rental units, and more. The outlined steps include immediate actions and longer-term plans, including an initiative where real estate-owned properties are first made available only to owner-occupants and non-profit organizations for a 30-day period.

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President Biden’s plan will be unprecedented because there are now bonuses and incentives for regular people to buy and sell, rather than the projects being run by large companies. By lowering the bar of entry into affordable housing, this plan potentially changes the game for the lower and middle classes of America. This is partly because of his focus on financing non-traditional homes including manufactured housing, accessory dwelling units (ADUs), 2–4-unit properties, and multifamily buildings.

Here are some of the notable goals of the plan:

-Reward jurisdictions that have reformed zoning and land use policies with higher scores in certain federal grant processes, for the first time at scale.

-Support production and availability of manufactured housing.

-Deploy new financing mechanisms to build and preserve more housing where financing gaps currently exist

-Provide Housing Supply Fund financing for affordable housing production to develop 500,000 units of housing for low-and moderate-income renters and homebuyers.

-Pilot New Financing for Housing Production and Preservation

However, one concern necessary to address is the role of infrastructure surrounding the new homes being built. Is new affordable housing still productive if there is low access to water, food (especially grocery stores), and healthcare where it’s being built? The infrastructure must support the new affordable housing, especially in the rural single-family construction that Biden mentions. Without easy access to grocery stores, doctor’s offices, and schools, will the new housing do more harm than good? In addition, if too many people are housed in one place, the risk of congestion could cause animosity between neighbors. Biden’s plan leads to questions about how and where the affordable housing will be built because, without strategic placement, food deserts could be created. Food insecurity affects millions of Americans every year. In 2019-2020, the National Health Interview Survey found that 10% of children between the ages of 0 and 17 years old lived-in households that experienced food insecurity in the past 30 days. To explore the possibilities and limitations of Biden’s plan, food insecurity considerations must be taken into account.

Biden’s “Actions to Ease the Burden of Housing Costs” are a step in the right direction. With the typical renter household paying more than 30 percent of their income for housing (see last issue’s article “Renters in Post-Pandemic America Continue to Struggle”), there is clearly a need for tangible action on the affordable housing issue. While Biden’s plan is a promising beginning, it is essential for additional steps to be taken as we ask questions about how his goals will be realized. If conducted alongside infrastructure growth and proper planning, these actions could improve life for middleand low-income communities across the country.