Dear Friends,The United States is experiencing a housing affordability crisis, one that is the result of decades of deliberate choices from policymakers who scaled back the federal government’s partnership on housing. This crisis was made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic.Housing is a human right. Yet, in one of the wealthiest countries on Earth, an estimated 580,000 people experience homelessness every single night. Nearly half of renters are “cost-burdened,” often paying much more than 30% of their income in rent. The United States has a shortage of seven million rental homes available to extremely low-income renters and there isn’t a single state that has an adequate supply of affordable rental homes. Affordable housing is too often out of reach.In 2019, I met with leaders, advocates, and policy experts to draft a comprehensive legislative roadmap and report outlining solutions for our most dire housing challenges. I worked with my friends Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley, Ilhan Omar, Pramila Jayapal, and Rashida Tlaib to create The People’s Housing Platform, an innovative framework that declares housing a fundamental human right. It also consisted of seven separate bills, each addressing a different aspect of the affordable housing and homelessness crisis. I was overwhelmed by the positive response and the real hunger at that time to meaningfully address this issue.And then in March 2020 COVID-19 hit.We pivoted to meet the most immediate needs in our community. The federal government funneled nearly $85 billion toward emergency housing and homelessness assistance, enacted an eviction moratorium, and offered mortgage forbearance. But this assistance was only temporary, it did not adequately make up for the deficit created by decades of budget cuts. We can and must do more.For centuries, the federal government has helped provide a home for some, often at the expense of others. Communities of color were systematically denied wealth-building opportunities in the form of property and faced discrimination in accessing housing. The impacts of these policies remain today: middle class families struggling to buy their first home, renters who can barely make rent, chronic homelessness, and lingering effects of centuries of institutionalized racism. We need a reset. My updated report, “Locked Out 2.0: Reversing Federal Housing Failures and Unlocking Opportunity,” details solutions for five of our most vexing housing policy challenges: Public Housing: Fully-fund all public housing capital maintenance needs and anticipate future needs, repeal the Faircloth Amendment that put a cap on the federal government’s public housing construction, and build 9.5 million new homes for low- and middle-income people waiting for public housing.Homelessness: Treat housing as a Human Right and guarantee the right to shelter, provide federal incentives to enact federal “housing first” and permanent supportive housing policies, fund and continually invest in the Housing Trust Fund, increase investments in Homeless Assistance Grants, permanently authorize and fund the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, expand the Legal Services Corporation to assist people facing unjust eviction, and expand the definition of homelessness to include anyone who lacked a fixed, regular, and adequate residence.Renter Relief: Create a Renter’s Tax Credit, make Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers an entitlement program like food assistance and Medicaid, expand the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, incentivize statewide caps on rent increases and maintain humane housing standards, triple the funding levels for housing for the elderly and persons with disabilities. Equitable Homeownership: Make the Mortgage Interest Deduction a credit available for all, deny the Mortgage Interest Deduction for purchasing second homes, create a new “Restorative Justice Home Loan Guarantee Program,” and reinstate the First Time Homeowner Tax Credit to help those who have been systematically excluded achieve homeownership.Fair Housing: Provide federal incentives to end exclusionary zoning, finalize the Obama-era Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing protections, prohibit all forms of housing discrimination by improving the Fair Housing Act, remove barriers to obtaining federal housing assistance for people with criminal records, and double the fair housing enforcement funding level.My commitment in releasing this updated legislative agenda is to do everything possible to get the federal government back in the game, build on the investments made over the last two years, and to start solving the problem instead of just talking about it.I will be sure to keep you regularly updated as I fight for all levels of government, starting with the federal government, to be a full partner in fixing the housing crisis. In the meantime, you can read the full report here.