Affordable Housing Crisis Task Force Issues Policy Recommendations

The National Housing Crisis Task Force recently released “From Crisis to Transformation: Federal Housing Policy Agenda,” a report containing 40 policy recommendations for the Trump Administration and Congress to tackle to alleviate the nation’s shortage of affordable housing.

The National Housing Crisis Task Force launched in July as a project of Drexel University’s Nowak Metro Finance Lab and Accelerator for America, an organization that supports local leaders. The bipartisan task force is co-led by Republican Utah Gov. Spencer Cox; Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens and Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb, both Democrats; and Susan Thomas, president of Fifth Third Community Development Corp.

The backdrop: The report notes that home prices have doubled in the last decade, homelessness has reached a record high, and nearly half of all renters in the U.S. are now cost-burdened. America’s housing policies cannot keep up with the need, and the private sector alone is not satisfying all the housing demand.

The task force’s federal policy proposals are wide-ranging, but one of its primary arguments is that the federal government must “fundamentally restructure” its organization to address the housing crisis. The task force recommends establishing a Housing Crisis Council with a leader directly reporting to the president and White House chief of staff.

The Housing Crisis Council would coordinate between the many agencies with housing-related programs, local governments and the private and civic sectors. The group also imagines this council as responsible for drafting and promoting priority legislation and regulations.

One level deeper: The other policy proposals in the report fall under the following objectives:

• Reducing barriers to housing production and eliminating complexity, such as by updating Department of Housing and Urban Development programs to make it easier for cities and the private sector to finance affordable housing.
• Mobilizing federal capital for housing production and preservation, such as by expanding and reforming the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program.
• Innovating with an “Industrial Policy Lens,” meaning the federal government must treat housing production as an industry and invest in improving that industry.
• Providing a housing safety net for households to ensure they can always find decent, stable, affordable housing. Policy recommendations under this objective include investing billions to end homelessness through various measures and creating a federal tax credit for low- and moderate-income renters who are rent-burdened.