In the wake of “abhorrent” comments made by President Donald Trump about homeless people, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday unveiled his $2.5 trillion “Housing for All” plan, which calls for building millions of affordable housing units and providing billions of dollars in rental assistance over a decade.
“In the richest country in the history of the world, every American must have a safe, decent, accessible, and affordable home as a fundamental right.”
—Bernie Sanders campaign”In the richest country in the history of the world, every American must have a safe, decent, accessible, and affordable home as a fundamental right,” the Sanders campaign declares in the plan, which will be paid for by a wealth tax on the top one-tenth of the one percent.
After teasing his housing plan at an event Saturday, the Independent senator from Vermont said in a statement Wednesday: “There is virtually no place in America where a full-time minimum wage worker can afford a decent two bedroom apartment. At a time when half of our people are living paycheck to paycheck, this is unacceptable.”
“For too long the federal government has ignored the extraordinary housing crisis in our country,” he added. “That will end when I am president.”
Billy Gendell, a Sanders campaign policy staffer, highlighted some of the plan’s proposals in a tweet:
One of the key proposals, the Sanders campaign explains, stems from a bill the senator put forth in the U.S. House nearly two decades ago:
Sanders proposes investing $1.48 trillion in the trust over 10 years “to build, rehabilitate, and preserve the 7.4 million quality, affordable and accessible housing units.” He further proposes spending $400 billion on building two million mixed-income social housing units, expanding a U.S. Department of Agriculture program by $500 million for new developments in rural areas, and boosting funds for the Indian Housing Block Grant Program to $3 billion.
During the first year of his presidency, Sanders would prioritize 25,000 National Affordable Housing Trust units to house people who are homeless. He would also double McKinney-Vento homelessness assistance grants to more than $26 billion over five years and provide $500 million for states and localities’ outreach programs.
In contrast, Trump was lambasted after he claimed during a rally in California Tuesday night that homeless people are ruining the “prestige” of major U.S. cities. Progressives, meanwhile, praised Sanders’ understanding of the crisis and his bold proposals to address it.
The plan claims that “most public housing is in desperate need of reconstruction and rehabilitation” and calls for a $70 million investment to improve accessibility and provide access to high-speed broadband in such units. Sanders also promises to “ensure that public housing has high-quality, shared community spaces.”
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