Biden Admin to Push for Affordable Housing

• Author: Chris Remington
• Posted: 2024-01-21

The previous two presidential administrations in America have spent more money than the ten before them. There isn't a day that goes by in the United States where the federal reserve isn't printing out billions of dollars in cash to inject into the American economy. For those people out there who blame Joe Biden for what they consider reckless spending, the fact is that this all started under former President Trump. While there was a global pandemic to contend with, the fact is that trillions of dollars were passed under Trump, along with $500 weekly in federal unemployment benefits for nearly 20 million Americans. The spending has been outrageous, and it's going to continue, as the White House announced that the Biden administration is planning on spending billions of dollars to create affordable housing.

A lot of people cannot believe that the Biden administration is planning on spending even more money, especially given the fact that an infrastructure bill for over $2 trillion was just passed, and this money is going to be separate from that. Not to mention the billions spent on immigration at our southern border and $500 million earmarked for Afghan refugees to date, with more expected to come shortly. The average person is having trouble affording gas. Eggs have gone up over $2 per carton, along with milk and other necessities. Inflation is wreaking havoc on the economy, and all the Biden admin can say is that "inflation is a sign of a strong economy", as they plan to spend more money.

Though on the flip side of that coin, a lot of people are excited that Biden will be spending more money on affordable housing. The fact is that every president since Johnson and his "Great Society" has injected billions of dollars into American housing, typically through the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). To date in America, there are just over 500 government-funded housing projects and tens of thousands of houses that HUD has constructed. The idea here is to build even more affordable housing, in part to combat a housing shortage in the market right now.

Biden's plan is to tack on extra money to the $318 million American Jobs Plan that he is proposing. The idea being that this will accomplish multiple good things for America in one bill. For starters, the plan is to get thousands of Americans to work in building these new homes. Builders, plumbers, electricians, etc. Secondly, the hope is that these new houses will definitely meet a need among the people who need affordable housing the most.

A lot of critics claim that the reason the government needs to keep spending billions every single year for affordable housing is due to the "U" in HUD: "Urban". The critics claim that due to the fact that they built this housing in urban areas, they end up in high-crime zones with poor performing schools, and people in these situations cannot rise up. Meanwhile, over 100 million Americans live outside of urban areas, and many of them need housing, and many of these areas would be prime locations to build affordable housing for urban people to move into, getting away from those areas that are historically prone to failure. Though no administration, Republican or Democrat, focuses efforts on rural renewal; it's all just urban renewal.

The Danger of New Government Housing

There is currently a major housing shortage. Millennials are basically locked out of the market and Gen-Z isn't even thinking about becoming homeowners because they would never be able to afford it. So, if new houses suddenly appear on the market, in urban areas where these demographics also congregate and live, what's to keep them from grabbing up all the homes? Unless the homes are specifically set aside for poorer people on Section 8, there's a risk that these homes will be bought up by people who do not need "affordable housing" but rather cannot compete with wealthier people in bidding wars for existing houses.

This leaves the Biden administration with a dilemma. Do they create affordable housing to fill the void of the housing market and risk these properties being snagged up by people who do not necessarily need them, or do they funnel that money into more housing projects and other tenements that are specifically meant for Section 8 residents?

To date, there are no fine details for Biden's plan, and no one knows when it is supposed to start or an estimate for when it's supposed to wrap up. Like most things under President Biden, it's all day by day.