Sen. Cory Booker pointed to a housing “affordability crisis” as he released a plan Wednesday to combat that crisis. The plan, expanding on a housing affordability bill he previously proposed in the Senate, would give renters a tax credit to bridge the gap that too often exists between the 30% of income considered affordable for housing and the rising rents in many parts of the United States.
The tax credit would reach 57 million Americans, 17 million of them children, according to Booker’s campaign, lifting 9.4 million out of poverty with an overall median credit of $4,800. It would be paid for by repealing Republican estate tax cuts and other cuts to taxes on corporations and wealthy individuals. Sen. Kamala Harris has proposed a similar renters’ tax credit, capped at incomes of $125,000.
Booker’s plan also includes regulatory and zoning changes—Sen. Elizabeth Warren has backed similar ideas—as well as more legal support for tenants facing eviction and incentives for construction of affordable housing. Additionally, CNN reports, “Booker also would incorporate an element of his criminal justice efforts into his housing plan by nixing a ‘one strike’ eviction policy in public housing, in which a tenant and his family can be pushed out for a first-time offense, including drug use.”