Housing isn’t a marquee part of the $2.5 trillion proposal Biden unveiled last week, dubbed the American Jobs Plan, as the next step of his economic recovery agenda.
The measure, however, would spend four times the entire Department of Housing and Urban Development’s 2020 budget on a range of programs meant to fight a housing shortage exacerbated by the pandemic.
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Biden is aiming to produce 2 million affordable houses and apartments with $213 billion in tax credits, federal spending and grants meant to encourage the construction of new buildings and the rehabilitation of existing ones to serve lower-income families.
The housing plan is still short on details and could change as Biden attempts to shepherd his infrastructure bill through Congress. Even so, affordable housing advocates, homebuilders, and housing economists say that Biden is on track to make a crucial dent in a pressing shortage.
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How historic eviction bans, activist organizing and billions in rental relief kept tens of millions of people in their homes during the pandemic CNBC 5 hrs ago Alicia Adamczyk © Provided by CNBC Tenant rights activists hold a demonstration to protest what they claim to be inadequate legislative relief for renters during the COVID-19 pandemic, February 28, 2021 in the East Village neighborhood of New York City.
From the onset of the Covid-19 economic recession in the United States last spring, housing organizers and advocates warned about the possibility of a coming eviction crisis.
Job losses hit renters, who make up a disproportionate share of service sector jobs, especially hard. In fact, by the first week of April last year, nearly one-third hadn t paid their rent on time. Even a year later, almost 20% of renters are behind on their housing payments, according to a report from Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody s Analytics, and Jim Parrott, a fello