Homelessness, Public Housing
Question:
How are you going to help the homeless and the broken down public housing and unsafe living conditions poor people are living in? -Kristen, Concord
Answer:
Kristen, this is a very complicated problem that involves dozens of factors. Homelessness, drugs, crime, and mass illegal immigration must be solved simultaneously to save public and private housing.
We had a national housing shortage of over 3 million housing units prior to 2020. That shortage is now around 7 million units and growing rapidly as 12 million illegal immigrants will have come across the border from 2021 through 2024.
We need to do several things to solve this crisis:
Get drug users off the streets and into treatment programs. This requires properly incentivizing all the block grants being given out to “solve” the drug problem. Current incentives do not solve anything. For example, free needle exchange programs and free housing only cause more needles to be on the streets, and merely move drug use into taxpayer funded housing. We need to stop the drug use itself.
Grants need to be incentivized to get people off the street, into treatment programs, and to progress through steps that will lead them to back to becoming a productive member of society. Grant money should be given at each stage of recovery and partially clawed back if a drug user relapses and moves backwards in the treatment process. This will incentivize organizations to create programs that work long-term and hold them accountable for the billions in taxpayer funds they receive. Getting drug users off the street will improve safety, clean up our cities, and revitalize public and private housing and businesses.
Increase law enforcement resources and support community programs to fight crime in the zip codes where violent crime is most highly concentrated. This doesn’t require further explanation and will have the same positive impact on safety and revitalization of public and private housing.
Enforce a zero illegal immigration policy. We must put a full stop to illegal immigration and reprioritize resources to struggling Americans. We are sending hundreds of billions of dollars overseas and spending hundreds of billions more supporting illegal immigrants. The current administration can immediately stop all illegal immigration under Immigration and Nationality Act § 212(f), but are choosing not to. I would use the power of the purse in Congress to force immediate closure of the border, and amend laws long-term so that Congress has its own enforcement authority over the border since it is now clear that Congress lacks a meaningful check and balance on the border, which has massive national security, financial, and societal implications, and should therefore be under the purview of The People’s representatives in Congress.
Use block grants to create “better housing” programs where people living in the public housing can receive additional discounts if they take good care of their homes or make improvements, and boost resources to local education infrastructure and community programs in these communities. We must change the culture in low-income neighborhoods from a day-to-day struggle for safety and subsistence into one of pride and opportunity.
Create federal programs for low-interest residential loans, use block grants to incentivize local re-zoning, and lift unnecessary building restrictions. Currently, we only have federal programs that reduce down payments for new homeowners, not reduce interest rates. Creating such a program would help people afford homes long-term, not just an initial reduced down payment. Doing these three things will increase access to capital, encourage state and local governments to re-zone areas for new residential housing, and will expedite the building process.
I am thinking more deeply on all of these issues and will release more details as my campaign goes on. But I hope this helps you understand my overall thinking on how to solve our housing problem.
Question Submitted: 2/14/24
Answered: 2/18/24