This article was reprinted with permission from Virginia Mercury.
Virginia Democratic lawmakers praised Vice President Kamala Harris’ housing policy plans in a virtual call Wednesday afternoon. The gathering came on the heels of a new campaign ad highlighting Harris’ plan to build three million new homes and rental units if elected president.
The plan is part of a proposal she unveiled ahead of the Democratic National Convention, which includes providing $25,000 in down payment assistance for some first-time homebuyers and tax incentives for builders.
A 2021 Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission study found that most Virginains affected by affordable housing issues are renters. It also found that a declining number of Virginians can afford to purchase a home, while the state has an estimated shortage of at least 200,000 affordable rental units.
U.S. Rep. Don Beyer, D-Alexandria, said that Harris’ plans will help local governments handle affordable housing issues.
“She can do this by deploying tax incentives to build starter homes to alleviate the shortage of houses on the market for aspiring homeowners,” Beyer said.
He pointed to Harris’ support of increasing low income housing tax credits that local governments could utilize for construction of new homes and apartments. These tax breaks to developers help incentivize development of homes to various percentages of area median income.
But many localities in Virginia lack the authority to utilize LIHTC credits when negotiating developments and redevelopments with companies and a bill that would have expanded those abilities was vetoed this year by the governor. This is where state and federal levels of government can be helpful to local governments.
Alexandria councilman John Chapman stressed how increasing affordable housing options is “not a hyper-local issue.”
“We want to hear that at the state level, and we love to hear that at the federal level, that there’s a need for supply, and there are also going to be some additional tools,” he said.
Housing is a personal issue for him, Chapman said, as someone benefiting from living in the home that his mother was able to purchase, in part, from down payment assistance.
“I know personally of the effect of the generational wealth that has passed along from family to family,” Chapman said.
Some of Harris’ policy platforms will hinge on who controls the U.S. House and Senate next year if she is elected. In Virginia, Sen. Tim Kaine is running for re-election and all 11 congressional seats are in play.
Beyer said that he thinks the fact that both Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, have previously served in Congress can bode well for them.
He said that he thinks both candidates “struck a bipartisan and post-partisan tone in the convention.”
Bolstering housing supply is also something former president Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, wants to address if re-elected.
Trump’s housing plans include opening portions of federal lands to allow for new home construction while addressing inflation overall, as well as building on previous efforts to reduce regulatory barriers to construction.
During his first term in office he created Opportunity Zones meant to attract investors to underinvested neighborhoods, but there’s not enough evidence to determine if poverty declined more in these zones than elsewhere.
Agenda 47 from his campaign also alleges that illegal immigrants have driven up the cost of housing. While limited legal immigrants qualify for federal housing assistance, undocumented people could lose their anonymity if they tried to purchase a home or lease an apartment.
Jeff Ryer, a spokesman for the Trump campaign in Virginia said that “Trump will defeat inflation, lower mortgage rates and make homeownership an achievable dream again for Virginia families.”
