Housing
A home shouldn't
be a luxury.
Wall Street turned your neighborhood into an investment. Corporate landlords buy up single-family homes. Rents are up 30%, 40%, 50% in cities across the country. This is a policy failure. And it has a policy fix.
What's Happening Now
The numbers.
The housing crisis is not an accident. It came from decades of policy choices.
of renters are "cost-burdened" - spending more than 30% of income on housing
Americans are homeless on any given night - the highest recorded number in U.S. history
single-family homes owned by institutional investors, removing them from first-time buyers
Average rent increase since 2020 - while wages grew 16%
Why This Happened
The housing crisis was built. It did not have to happen.
For decades, federal housing policy has put homeowner wealth ahead of access to housing. Exclusionary zoning means local rules that ban apartments near jobs and transit. It is illegal under fair housing law. But it is common. The federal government let it happen.
After 2008, Wall Street moved into single-family rentals. Federal incentives sped that up. Firms like Invitation Homes and Blackstone got tax breaks to buy up distressed homes. Then they squeezed the families living there for every dollar of rent they could.
Project 2025 made it worse. It called for three things. End fair housing enforcement. Gut the Community Development Block Grant program. Strip HUD of the power to make local governments affirmatively further fair housing. The result was easy to predict. More segregation. Higher rents. Fewer options.
The fix is not complicated. It takes political will. Build more housing. Protect current tenants. Tax speculation. Spend public money on housing as infrastructure, not as a money-maker for the rich.
What Project 2025 Did to Housing
- ● Proposed ending the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) rule. That rule was the main tool for undoing segregation.
- ● Cut Community Development Block Grants. That was the main federal money for affordable housing in lower-income areas.
- ● Weakened fair lending enforcement at HUD and CFPB. That opened the door to biased mortgage lending.
- ● Proposed turning HUD rental aid into block grants. That would cut housing vouchers for 5 million families.
- ● Ended the Housing First policy. It swapped proven ways to fight homelessness for punishment.
The Plan
What Project 2029 proposes.
Based on Chapter 15 (HUD) of Project 2029. Specific bills. Real timelines. The Constitution backs each one.
Social Housing Development Authority
Build non-speculative housing at scale - permanently affordable
Establish a federal Social Housing Development Authority (SHDA) modeled on Vienna's successful public housing model. The SHDA would develop mixed-income, permanently affordable housing with resident governance rights. Funded by a $50B bond issuance over 10 years. Housing built through SHDA would be deed-restricted to remain affordable permanently - removing it from the speculative market entirely.
Housing First Act
End homelessness through housing, not punishment
Restore and codify the Housing First approach to homelessness - proven by research to reduce homelessness and save money. Require all HUD-funded homelessness programs to use Housing First models. Provide $10B over 5 years for supportive housing with wraparound services. Prohibit cities that receive federal transportation or community development funds from criminalizing homelessness (sleeping, camping ordinances).
Anti-Speculation and Anti-Monopoly Measures
Get Wall Street out of your neighborhood
Impose a 50% federal tax on profits from single-family home sales by institutional investors (entities owning 10+ homes). Require institutional investors in single-family rentals to offer right of first refusal to existing tenants at appraised value. Limit institutional ownership of single-family homes in any single metropolitan area to no more than 2% of total housing stock. Direct FTC and DOJ to aggressively investigate algorithmic rent-setting software (like RealPage) as anticompetitive collusion.
Zoning Reform Incentives
Build more housing where people want to live
Create a $25B Zoning Reform Grant Program - conditioned on localities legalizing multifamily housing near transit stations, job centers, and schools. Withhold HUD community development grants from jurisdictions that maintain exclusionary zoning in areas of high housing demand. Require states receiving federal transportation funding to mandate transit-oriented development within a half-mile of any federally funded transit stop.
Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (Restored and Strengthened)
Enforce the Fair Housing Act as written
Restore AFFH requirements via executive order on Day One. Introduce legislation to codify AFFH requirements into statute so they cannot be undone by executive action. Require all localities receiving HUD funds to submit meaningful fair housing plans with measurable goals, timelines, and enforcement mechanisms. Establish a Fair Housing Enforcement Division with 500 new investigators and a $2B annual budget.
Tenant Bill of Rights
Protection from exploitation - in every rental in America
Establish federal minimum tenant protections: just-cause eviction requirements (no eviction without documented cause), 90-day notice for rent increases over 5%, right to counsel in eviction proceedings, prohibition on application fees exceeding $30, and fair chance housing standards: no automatic disqualification for arrests without conviction, 7-year lookback limit on criminal history, offense-specific relevance requirements (prior must be directly related to tenancy risk), and individualized assessment mandates that prevent blanket bans from serving as a proxy for racial discrimination. Condition federal housing assistance on state adoption of these minimum standards.
Down Payment Assistance for First-Generation Homebuyers
Close the racial wealth gap through ownership access
Provide up to $25,000 in down payment assistance to first-time homebuyers who are also first-generation homebuyers (whose parents did not own a home). Funded at $10B per year through the appropriations process. Designed specifically to address the racial wealth gap created by decades of redlining and discriminatory mortgage practices. Income-limited to households below 150% of area median income.
Take Action
What you can do right now.
Vote
Local housing policy is set by city councils, county supervisors, and state legislators. Vote in every election.
Register to Vote →Call Your Rep
Tell your members of Congress you want federal housing investment, tenant protections, and anti-speculation rules.
Find Your Rep →Print & Share
Download the housing one-pager from Project 2029. Print it. Share it. Leave it at your coffee shop.
Get One-Pager →Read the Full Chapter
Chapter 15 of Project 2029 - the complete HUD reform blueprint with full legal citations.
Read Chapter 15 →Share This
Help others understand what's at stake.
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