www.washingtonpost.com
Open in
urlscan Pro
23.37.45.67
Public Scan
URL:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/10/08/kamala-harris-housing-plan-yimby/?utm_campaign=wp_post_most&utm_medium=email...
Submission: On October 08 via api from BE — Scanned from DE
Submission: On October 08 via api from BE — Scanned from DE
Form analysis 1 forms found in the DOM
<form class="wpds-c-gRPFSl wpds-c-gRPFSl-jGNYrR-isSlim-false">
<div class="transition-all duration-200 ease-in-out"><button type="submit" data-qa="sc-newsletter-signup-button" class="wpds-c-kSOqLF wpds-c-kSOqLF-uTUwn-variant-primary wpds-c-kSOqLF-eHdizY-density-default wpds-c-kSOqLF-ejCoEP-icon-left">Sign
up</button></div>
</form>Text Content
Accessibility statementSkip to main content Democracy Dies in Darkness SubscribeSign in Advertisement Democracy Dies in Darkness BusinessEconomyEconomic PolicyPersonal FinanceWorkTechnologyBusiness of Climate BusinessEconomyEconomic PolicyPersonal FinanceWorkTechnologyBusiness of Climate KAMALA HARRIS SAYS AMERICA NEEDS MORE HOMES. HERE’S WHY THAT’S DIFFERENT. Harris’s approach has inched closer and closer to what’s known as "YIMBYism,” shorthand for “Yes in My Backyard.” 7 min 300 Vice President Kamala Harris speaks to supporters in Raleigh, N.C., on Aug. 16, 2024. (Cornell Watson for The Washington Post) By Rachel Siegel , Michael Scherer and Sabrina Rodriguez October 8, 2024 at 6:00 a.m. EDT The core of Kamala Harris’s housing platform is a simple idea: America needs more houses. But the vice president’s pitch — to help build 3 million homes and incentivize local governments and builders to join in — stands apart from how major political candidates typically talk about housing, if they do at all. Get a curated selection of 10 of our best stories in your inbox every weekend. To housing experts, the Democratic nominee’s approach has inched closer and closer to what’s known as “YIMBYism.” The slogan stands for “Yes in My Backyard,” as a rebuttal to what’s known as NIMBYism, for “Not in My Backyard.” It generally encompasses people who support boosting the number of homes available and putting them in more places. Think apartment buildings alongside single-family houses and more public transportation to support denser neighborhoods. Harris doesn’t use the acronym to describe herself. And there are plenty of YIMBYs who take a different approach, such as trying to withhold state or federal funding from localities that don’t take part in efforts to build more. But Harris’s emphasis on tackling America’s housing problems with more supply is a new approach for Democrats focused on voters’ concerns around affordability and a telltale part of the American Dream. Speaking on the popular “Call Her Daddy” podcast, which is aimed at young women, Harris this week said, “Housing is too expensive, and we need to increase the housing supply.” Advertisement Story continues below advertisement “To seem compelling in a political year, you can’t do a bunch of small stuff people can’t remember. You have to go big,” said Jim Parrott, a housing adviser under the Obama administration who also advises the Harris campaign. “If she is a YIMBY, it’s a warm, fuzzy, carrot kind. Not a stick YIMBY.” 🏛️ Follow Politics Follow Democrats began focusing on housing policy last year, realizing the headwinds of running to keep the White House and Senate in a country overwhelmed by rising costs. President Joe Biden began addressing the problem in March with his State of the Union address, during which he announced a plan to build and preserve more than 2 million homes, along with moves to use antitrust law against corporate landlords who were indirectly coordinating in rental pricing and eliminate title insurance fees. He went further in July, in the wake of his campaign-ending debate performance, rolling out a plan to cap rent increases and make more public land available for housing before he dropped his reelection bid. Democratic pollsters encouraged the moves, with the Navigator Research poll, an independent survey read by policymakers, presenting attacks on “greedy landlords” as an easy win, particularly among younger voters whom Democrats have struggled to keep in the fold. An April Gallup poll also found the “cost of owning/renting a home” to be the second most important financial problem for families, next to the more generic “high cost of living/inflation.” Advertisement Story continues below advertisement When Harris took over the ticket in late July, she immediately shifted her public rhetoric — and the campaign’s paid advertising — to focus more on combating high costs. She made her efforts to take on housing costs in California a centerpiece of her biography and talked about her mother saving up to buy her family’s first house. “Right now, a serious housing shortage is part of what is driving up cost,” Harris said at a Las Vegas campaign event last month. “So we will cut the red tape and work with the private sector to build 3 million new homes, and provide first-time home buyers with $25,000 down-payment assistance so you can just get your foot in the door. You’ll do the rest.” Harris’s plans also include expanding the low-income housing tax credit — a key program for constructing and rehabilitating rental housing for low-income households — and creating a $40 billion “innovation fund” to help local governments build more affordable housing. She has also talked about taking on corporate landlords and capping rent increases. Advertisement Story continues below advertisement All of these proposals would require approval by Congress and might be difficult to push through under a divided government. And even if regulations are enacted, some economists have worried that the turbocharged buyer credits would juice demand even more, and ultimately push prices higher by giving purchasers more money to spend. Home and rent prices took off on the heels of the pandemic, when people suddenly clamored for the few options available. In the for-sale market, mortgage rates shot up in 2022 and 2023 as the Federal Reserve raised borrowing costs to tackle inflation, leaving many first-timers shut out. (The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage peaked at nearly 8 percent last year, and has since fallen to near 6 percent as the Fed lowers rates.) Donald Trump’s campaign has taken a vastly different approach to housing issues. During last week’s vice-presidential debate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) blamed soaring housing costs on a spike in immigration over the past few years, saying that “kicking out illegal immigrants who are competing for those homes” would help affordability. In a statement, RNC spokesperson Taylor Rogers said Trump would secure the border, “ban mortgages for illegal immigrants who drive up the price of housing, and eliminate federal regulations driving up housing costs.” Advertisement Story continues below advertisement “When President Trump is back in the White House, he will cut the cost of new homes in half, open portions of federal land with ultralow taxes and regulations for large-scale housing construction and end the housing affordability crisis that Kamala Harris created,” Rogers said. The campaign’s claims that mass deportations would open housing supply has been widely debunked by economists, who argue that recent immigrants — many of whom rent and work in low-wage jobs — live in a very segmented part of the housing market. Experts and builders also caution that strict immigration restrictions would deal a serious blow to the construction industry, which relies on foreign-born labor and is crucial to home building. No federal policy proposals can address all aspects of the housing market; state and local zoning laws have major influence over what houses can be built and where. And some proponents of YIMBYism note that there is a wide spectrum of progressive housing policies, and Harris’s plans don’t cover it all. Advertisement Story continues below advertisement “I do appreciate their spin on all of this, but I think when you dig into Harris’s actual policy proposals, they are not a push for unbridled market rate supply by any means,” said Shamus Roller, executive director of the National Housing Law Project. He added that he would also like to see Harris focus more on the poorest people who are just getting by, including seniors and people on fixed incomes, who face some of the steepest affordability challenges. Ahead of Harris’s visit to Nevada last month, several hundred advocates with the Center for Popular Democracy Action and its affiliated groups marched in Las Vegas to draw attention to the housing situation in that battleground state. They have also hosted rallies in New York, Pennsylvania and elsewhere over the past few weeks to call for more funding for affordable housing and stronger tenant protections. While the groups are backing Harris, organizers say she still needs to focus more on issues facing renters, many of whom are young and people of color — key parts of the coalition that helped Biden win in 2020. Some of Harris’s proposals — like $25,000 first-time buyer credit — are “great for people that are in a situation to be buying a home, but that doesn’t really help the people that are really struggling, the people that are renting,” said Athena Katsarus, who is involved with affiliate group Make the Road Nevada. “We lost our savings. We lost everything we put away because of the pandemic and the economic situation, and a lot of us are still trying to rebuild that,” Katsarus said. “It’s been really hard for people to bounce back, and some just can’t.” Share 300 Comments NewsletterWednesdays The Color of Money Advice on how to save, spend and talk about your money for the short and long term from Michelle Singletary. Sign up Subscribe to comment and get the full experience. Choose your plan → Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Company About The Post Newsroom Policies & Standards Diversity & Inclusion Careers Media & Community Relations WP Creative Group Accessibility Statement Sitemap Get The Post Become a Subscriber Gift Subscriptions Mobile & Apps Newsletters & Alerts Washington Post Live Reprints & Permissions Post Store Books & E-Books Today’s Paper Public Notices Contact Us Contact the Newsroom Contact Customer Care Contact the Opinions Team Advertise Licensing & Syndication Request a Correction Send a News Tip Report a Vulnerability Terms of Use Digital Products Terms of Sale Print Products Terms of Sale Terms of Service Privacy Policy Cookie Settings Submissions & Discussion Policy RSS Terms of Service Ad Choices washingtonpost.com © 1996-2024 The Washington Post * washingtonpost.com * © 1996-2024 The Washington Post * About The Post * Contact the Newsroom * Contact Customer Care * Request a Correction * Send a News Tip * Report a Vulnerability * Download the Washington Post App * Policies & Standards * Terms of Service * Privacy Policy * Cookie Settings * Print Products Terms of Sale * Digital Products Terms of Sale * Submissions & Discussion Policy * Sitemap * RSS Terms of Service * Ad Choices COOKIE CHOICES FOR EU, SWISS & UK RESIDENTS We and our 94 partners store and access personal data, like browsing data or unique identifiers, on your device. Selecting "I Accept" enables tracking technologies to support the purposes shown under "we and our partners process data to provide," whereas selecting "Reject All" or withdrawing your consent will disable them. If trackers are disabled, some content and ads you see may not be as relevant to you. You can resurface this menu to change your choices or withdraw consent at any time by clicking the ["privacy preferences"] link on the bottom of the webpage [or the floating icon on the bottom-left of the webpage, if applicable]. Your choices will have effect within our Website. For more details, refer to our Privacy Policy. If you click “I accept,” in addition to processing data using cookies and similar technologies for the purposes to the right, you also agree we may process the profile information you provide and your interactions with our surveys and other interactive content for personalized advertising. If you are an EU, Swiss, or UK resident and you do not accept, we will process cookies and associated data for strictly necessary purposes and process non-cookie data as set forth in our Privacy Policy (consistent with law and, if applicable, other choices you have made). WE AND OUR PARTNERS PROCESS COOKIE DATA TO PROVIDE: Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Create profiles for personalised advertising. Use profiles to select personalised advertising. Create profiles to personalise content. Use profiles to select personalised content. Measure advertising performance. Measure content performance. Understand audiences through statistics or combinations of data from different sources. Develop and improve services. Store and/or access information on a device. Use limited data to select content. Use limited data to select advertising. List of Partners (vendors) I Accept Reject All Show Purposes