Resolved: The United States ought to guarantee the right to housing

The government has been vastly inefficient when trying to decrease homelessness

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The government has been vastly inefficient when trying to decrease homelessness Fischer and Sard 2016 (Will, Senior Policy Analyst, B.A. from Yale University and a Masters in Public Policy from UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy; Barbara, VP for Housing Policy and Senior Managing Attorney of the Housing Unit at Greater Boston Legal Services, B.A. in Social Studies from Radcliffe College/Harvard University. “Chart Book: Federal Housing Spending Is Poorly Matched to Need”. Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. June 8 2016 http://www.cbpp.org/research/housing/chart-book-federal-housing-spending-is-poorly-matched-to-need The federal government spent $190 billion in 2015 to help Americans buy or rent homes, but little of that spending went to the families who struggle the most to afford housing. As the charts below show, federal housing expenditures are unbalanced in two respects: they target a disproportionate share of subsidies on higher-income households and they favor homeownership over renting. Lower-income renters are far likelier than homeowners or higher-income renters to pay very high shares of their income for housing and to experience problems such as homelessness, housing instability, and overcrowding. Federal rental assistance is highly effective at helping these vulnerable families, but rental assistance programs are deeply underfunded and as a result reach only about one in four eligible households. Privatize US should fully-privatize the housing finance system Michel and Ligon 2014 (Norbert, John. “Five Guiding Principles for Housing Finance Policy: A Free-Market Vision”. The Heritage Foundation. August 11 2014) http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2014/08/five-guiding-principles-for-housing-finance-policy-a-free-market-vision The two government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs), Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, remain under government conservatorship with the federal government standing behind all of their obligations. Housing finance reform is likely to be addressed during the next congressional session, but it appears the House and the Senate may offer very different reform proposals. Congress should move the U.S. toward a market-based housing finance system. Increasing government intervention—as U.S. policies have done for decades—only makes housing less affordable for the typical American and destabilizes housing and financial markets. The following is a list of five free-market principles to guide the future housing finance policy debate. Download 95.74 Kb. Share with your friends: