There is a housing crisis within America, especially in growing states such as Georgia, Arizona, Florida, and New Mexico where rents increased by 6% to 9% from 2022 to 2023; and nearly half of all renters spend more than 30% of their incomes on rent. While all other household expenses have had inflation rates between 1% and 2% in 2024, year-to-year housing cost inflation has slowly declined from 8% (in January 2023) to 4.85% (in September 2024), which is still very high. The Housing Crisis Response Act of 2023 is a bill introduced by Democratic Representative Maxine Waters of Los Angeles in June of 2023, and was co-sponsored by 64 Democratic Representatives (no Republicans). This bill was the Democratic Party’s plan to address the housing crisis by providing housing expansion, community advancement, and the distribution of funds to public housing. This proposed bill has a broad focus, generally trying to supply affordable or subsidized housing to those who struggle to pay rent or find permanent housing they can afford, but specifically funding programs for rural rental housing, Native American housing, seniors, persons with disabilities, and residents of neighborhoods suffering from underinvestment and blight. Essentially, the bill provides funding for the many programs run by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, but the bill would have significantly increased funding to HUD with very substantial increases in funding for housing choice vouchers and programs that would lead to the “construction, purchase, or rehabilitation” of affordable homes. The purpose was to make a wide impact within the housing issue.
However, as the House of Representatives was led by Republicans, and the no Republicans co-sponsored the bill, the bill faced poor prospects of passage in the 118th Congress. Instead, the Republican-controlled House passed a bipartisan funding continuation bill in late September of 2024 (the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2025), and the Republican alternative bill for Housing and Urban Development (Title II of H.R. 4820) was postponed and never passed. The Republican bill (H.R. 4820) proposed $27.4 billion for housing choice vouchers, whereas the Housing Crisis Response Act of 2023 would have allocated $24 billion for Housing Choice Vouchers. In contrast, the Democratic Party bill would have made $65 billion for repairing and preserving over 500,000 public housing units, whereas the Republican bill proposed only the usual $8.4 billion for this purpose. The Democratic bill aimed to increase the supply of affordable housing and invest significantly in public housing, whereas the Republican bill did not aim to do this, and instead made modest increases in funding for housing choice voucher program.
While neither of the housing bills (the Democratic Housing Crisis Response Act of 2023 and the Republican H.R. 4820 Appropriations Act) have been passed in the 118th Congress, the American housing crisis has worsened. The market forces creating a lack of affordable housing, the government’s failure to invest in permanent supported housing (a combination of subsidized housing and mental health and addiction treatment and support), the continuing meager and inadequate support for addiction treatment and mental health services, and the refusal to invest in significant increases in housing choice voucher programs or public housing, have all created an epidemic of homelessness across the nation. The January 2023 count of the homelessness population was 653,104 people, which was a huge increase over the 580,462 counted in 2022, which was itself the highest count since 2014, when recovery from the Great Recession was improving the situation. Between 2019 and 2023 the numbers who entered emergency shelters for the first time increased by nearly 25% (Soucy et al.). Even ones within a home face issues with maintaining that status. In 2021, nearly 50% of adult renters surveyed were experiencing housing insecurity in the form of likely to be evicted (Soucy et al.). There is an ever-growing need for affordable housing accommodation as there has been increasing homelessness and housing insecurity within America. Providing affordable housing and housing accommodation has shown to decrease issues that surround the crisis.
Public housing and housing accommodation make a positive change in the economy, overcrowding, job opportunities, poverty, health conditions, and school opportunities for children. It has been shown that for every $1 spent on public housing generates an additional $2.12 in economic activity (Pagaduan, Todman). Putting money into this project generates jobs and economic growth as well as providing a proactive solution to a crisis within America. By providing housing, children who are in households receiving housing support show improvement in their academic performance. When in subsidized housing programs, there are statistically significant benefits for children in terms of their future adulthood earnings (Pagaduan). Housing changes the living of the people it is provided to. The purpose of the Housing Crisis Response Act is to make a wide impact within the housing issue.
The Housing Crisis Response Act calls for over 150 billion dollars to be set aside for crucial housing development. This is in the form of creating, advancing, or maintaining public housing, affordable and accessible housing, home ownership opportunities, and more. There are investments made to energy efficient housing, community development, and lead-paint hazard control and other housing related health concerns. Much of public housing has not been updated or replaced since 1999 (CLPHA). Over 90% of public housing is 30+ years old (CLPHA). Unfortunately, there is no mention of an idea of what to do with individuals in unsafe or unlivable assisted homes. There is not certainty they will have security in housing when the development or reconstruction of their original home needs to take place. Not only is there an increased need for housing, but there is also an extreme lack of expansion of public or affordable housing. This is why money is split into different sections, amounts varying on possible importance of need.
The bill was made with budget in mind. The money has already been allocated to different populations and types of housing. The financial aid is distributed via grants, other housing acts, and the Secretary of HUD. The grants can be awarded to local governments, assisted living facilities, public housing agencies, nonprofit organizations, and for-profit developers. The money is intended for investing, revitalizing, developing, assisting, supporting, and maintaining property and people. Unfortunately, there is no guarantee that all the money given will be put towards the right thing. There is no allocated representative to watch a project through or mention of receipts kept of construction. Though, the various allocations and areas the policy will reach provide different means towards security of housing for those without. The bill has been made with the intention to reach a wide population.
The Housing Crisis Response Act has a plan to reach many experiencing housing insecurities. This bill has direct plans to address the housing crisis of people with disabilities, the elderly, Native American communities, rural communities, multifamily households, and first-generation home buyers. This population of citizens have the most need for housing stability as they are the most likely to experience housing insecurity. Unfortunately, this bill does not mention first generation immigrants which is another sensitive population to the housing crisis. Although, this is a wide range of people in need of the support and services this bill can cover, it might miss some vulnerable populations. The policy could change many people’s lives.
Overall, the Housing Crisis Response Act is a well planned out bill that addresses the crisis of housing and homelessness in America. It does this by allocating money towards different categories of development, revitalization, support, investment, assistance, and maintenance whether it be for sustainable housing or the people in need of housing.
Another criticism of the Democratic Party’s plan would come from fiscal conservatives who would point out that “taxes are already high” and “even with our high federal income taxes, we still don’t take in enough tax revenue to cover the spending we are already doing, so we have a big deficit that drives up the national debt and forces payment on the interest of the national debt to increase each year”. Other criticisms might come from people who say the solution would be to move persons from areas where housing expenses are high to areas where housing expenses are low, rather than helping people afford housing in high-rent areas of the country. Others might question whether crowding is really so bad: “our ancestors in the 19th century lived in tiny homes or cabins, and they built this magnificent country”.
A central contrast I would have highlighted is this: the Democratic plan calls for the creation of many new affordable housing units and a substantial increase in funding to maintain and rehabilitate existing public housing or housing units. The Republican plan is pretty much to go along as things are, with some modest increases in the housing voucher program.
Works Cited
Council of Large Public Housing Authorities. “Public Housing Facts.” CLPHA, 2012, clpha.org/public-housing/facts.
Pagaduan, Julie. “Millions of Americans Are Housing Insecure: Rent Relief and Eviction Assistance Continue to Be Critical.” National Alliance to End Homelessness, 2 Dec. 2021, endhomelessness.org/resource/housing-insecurity-rent-relief-eviction-assistance/.
Soucy, D., Janes, M., and Hall, A. “State of Homelessness: 2024 Edition.” National Alliance to End Homelessness, 5 Aug. 2024, endhomelessness.org/homelessness-in-america/homelessness-statistics/state-of-homelessness/.
Todman, A. (2019). Housing in America: Assessing the Infrastructure Needs of America’s Housing Stock. Testimony by Adrianne Rodman at the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services, April 30, 2019. https://democrats-financialservices.house.gov/uploadedfiles/hhrg-116-ba00-wstate-todmana-20190430.pdf
Waters, Maxine. “Legislative Search Results | Congress.Gov | Library of Congress.” H.R.4233 - Housing Crisis Response Act of 2023, 2023, www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/4233.
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