Donald Trump on the campaign trail usnews.com |
It is time for the weekly edition of Blogger Candidate Forum. Before we get going on why Democrats and Republicans do not talk about affordable housing, yours truly would like to say a word or two about the latest development in the Trump-Pence campaign.
Facing slumping numbers in swing states with less than three months before Election, Mr. Trump overhauled his campaign staff. Mr. Trump added two officials to key positions to wright his floundering campaign and pivoting towards a scorched earth outsider determined to win. Mr. Trump hired Breibart News executive and former investment banker, Steve Bannon to the position of campaign chief executive and promoted senior advisor and pollster Kellyanne Conway to campaign manager. Campaign chief strategist Paul Manefort will retain his position as campaign chairman and recently dismissed head of Fox News Roger Ailes will advise Mr. Trump. Can this shuffle save the this campaign or is it too little to late? Only time will tell. On to affordable housing.
Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake at the 2016 DNCC baltimoresun.com |
Senator Kaine giving his acceptance speech at the DNCC cnn.com |
Neither major party were that anxious to place affordable housing on the front burner of their respective convention. Mr. Capps writes, "This is a surprise in at least two respects: Democrats and Republicans broadly disagree about what to do about housing, but have policy solutions in mind that are close to their ideological solutions." More to the point, Americans most definitely want hear about these solutions.
Public investment in affordable housing housingworksri.org |
This issue is more important to Democrats-i.e. "...71 percent of Democratic respondents emphasized housing affordability as a priority versus 44 percent of Republicans." It is not as if Republicans do not care about affordable housing. It is a situation of Democrats being more likely know someone having difficulty paying the rent or mortgage-women (51 percent as opposed to 43 percent of men) and respondents without college degrees (44 percent versus 40 percent of those with college degrees). Thus, it is logical that Democrats would dedicate more airtime to housing.
Brooklyn affordable housing project Brooklyn, New York brownstoner.com |
The problem, one of many for the Red Team, is that Mr. Trump DID cheer for the housing crash and did build his real estate empire on discriminatory housing practices. Yet, the Republican Party 2016 platform believes that the solution to housing affordability is "...is to strip away regulations on building, scale back Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and shrink the role Federal Housing in guaranteeing mortgages. Affirmative Furthering Fair Housing earns special ire in the GOP ire."
OOR 2016 Housing wage map cedam.info |
The big surprises all around: The Red Team wants to restrict the federal government regulatory agency, designed to give the housing market in providing housing (except with respect to local zoning codes, something the GOP are keen to protect). The Blue Team does not assign any role for the market at all in growing housing and make some improbable claims-"It would take a huge expansion of the modest National Housing Trust Fund to 'create millions of good-paying jobs in the process.'"
Be that as it may, both the Democrats and Republicans stand by their proposals and genuinely believe that their solutions will alleviate a major concern for voters, the party standard bearers should pay attention to this. Events like the Terwilliger Foundation's #MakeHousingGreatAgain benefit during the RNC Convention did not make the grade.
Kriston Capps cites one part of Democratic Party platform as being particularly noteworthy for the future,
Over the nest decade, most new households will be formed by families in communities of color, which typically have less generational wealth and fewer resources to put toward a down payment.
This is fact and making sure that these communities have equal access to the housing market over the next decades, something critical to the future of the nation's economy. In short, both the Democrats and Republicans cannot afford to ignore this issue.
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