Copyright: Bennian
The NewDEAL Forum Renewing America Task force has released policy guidance for state, county and city leaders on responding to the housing affordability crisis that has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Forum, which advises the NewDEAL network of progressive, pro-growth state and local elected leaders, convened a discussion between mayors, state officials and housing policy experts to probe structural inequities in housing policy that have been deepened by the health crisis and prioritize solutions for rebuilding the nation’s economy in the wake of the pandemic.
The immediate challenge for policymakers is how to keep people in their communities safely housed in the face of disproportionate unemployment among the most housing cost burdened demographics.
The Task Force urged state and local governments to target aid to reach the households most severely impacted by the health crisis. One of their recommendations is to provide direct rental payments to landlords combined with stronger legal protections for tenants—including expungement of 2020 evictions, access to legal representation for tenants and the implementation of eviction diversion programs to keep people safely housed.
The Task Force recognizes that rent payment is essential to keeping property owners solvent and suggests that state and local governments delay property taxes and other fees to lessen financial impact on landlords.
NMHC has a long-held working relationship with NewDeal leaders and worked closely with them as they developed this list of recommendations. In fact, the Task Force cited NMHC’s Housing Affordability Toolkit as a resource for expanding production of affordable housing, including lifting exclusionary barriers, streamlining permitting and aligning incentives to meet community needs.
For more information on NMHC’s advocacy work during the COVID-19 pandemic, please visit the NMHC COVID-19 Advocacy webpage. To access more information on NMHC’s efforts regarding housing affordability, please visit the NMHC Housing Affordability webpage.
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