With President Biden bowing out, and Kamala Harris now the likely Democratic nominee for the 2024 presidential election, real estate practitioners will want to know where she stands on key housing issues. After all, it’s hard to understand a leader without understanding the context of her career (Harris didn’t just fall out of a coconut tree, after all). So, let’s get into that context.
Harris’ background includes becoming attorney general for California, a four-year Senate run—during which she sponsored and co-sponsored several housing bills—and a previous presidential campaign.
2010
Harris was elected Attorney General of California. During her time as attorney general, Harris won a $20 billion settlement for Californians whose homes had been foreclosed on.
2017 – 2018
She co-sponsored the Homeless Children and Youth Act with Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA). It looked to modify Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) definitions relating to homeless individuals and homeless children or youth. HUD uses these to verify eligibility for HUD homeless assistance programs.
Vice President Harris also co-sponsored the Combat Sexual Harassment in Housing Act with Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) to amend the Fair Housing Act, specifying that unwelcome touching of a sexual nature or groping constitutes a discriminatory housing practice.
Note: From 2019 – 2020, Harris announced she would run for President of the United States and was campaigning.
2019
2019 was a heavy-hitting year for housing proposals from Harris. She unveiled a $100 billion plan to invest in Black homeownership as part of her presidential bid to tackle the U.S. racial wealth gap. The plan proposed that homebuyers who rent or live in historically redlined communities would be able to apply for a federal grant of up to $25,000 that could go toward down payments or closing costs.
“So we must right the wrong and—after generations of discrimination—give Black families a real shot at homeownership—historically one of the most powerful drivers of wealth,” Harris said in a speech at the time.
With the Rent Relief Act, co-sponsored by Danny K. Davis (D-IL), Jimmy Gomez (D-CA) and Scott Peters (D-CA), renters would have been eligible for refundable tax credits if they earned less than $100,000. The goal was to recoup housing costs that totaled more than 30% of renters’ income.
She introduced the Ending Homelessness Act, co-sponsored by Senators Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Patty Murray (D-WA), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN). The bill looked to create federal grant programs for individuals experiencing homelessness, increasing funding for existing programs like the national Housing Trust Fund, project-based rental assistance and project-based vouchers.
Vice President Harris also co-sponsored a $100 billion Housing Is Infrastructure Act with Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) to expand access to affordable housing across the U.S. Seventy billion dollars would have gone toward the Public Housing Capital Funds for repairs and upgrades to federally subsidized housing.
Also, to tackle rising CO death rates and lax HUD requirements, Harris introduced a bill that would install carbon monoxide detectors in federally subsidized buildings.
Other co-sponsorships included:
Lastly, Vice President Harris co-sponsored the Fair Chance at Housing Act with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The bill looked to define legal parameters of scrutiny for those applying for federal housing assistance with a criminal record. It would make it more difficult to evict a tenant with just one criminal offense and prevent evictions if family members didn’t know about a guilty person’s criminal history.
2020
The then-Senator introduced a housing plan that would give homeowners and renters financial relief amid struggles related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The bill looked to ban evictions and foreclosures for a year, giving tenants up to 18 months to catch up on missed payments. The plan would have also prevented landlords from raising rents or reporting unpaid rent to credit reporting companies for a year.
“With unemployment skyrocketing and so many Americans struggling to make ends meet, the country is facing an eviction and homelessness crisis like never before,” Harris told Politico at the time. “That’s why we need this bold legislation to support Americans experiencing financial hardship or eviction as a result of this pandemic.”
2023
Vice President Harris introduced rules around eliminating bias in automated valuation models (software-based tools to determine property values). The administration also proposed a dashboard showing which states impose overly restrictive requirements for becoming an appraiser to reduce instances of discrimination that keep minority appraisers from entering the industry.
“For generations, many people of color have been prevented from taking full advantage of the benefits of homeownership,” Harris said during her announcement. “Today, that legacy of inequity persists in part in the home appraisal system.”
A version of those rules were finalized just last month.
2024
Though Harris’ stance may flex should she earn the presidential spot, she recently stamped her approval for on-the-table housing proposals in a July 16 post on X (formerly Twitter).
“Every American deserves affordable housing—yet the cost is too high in communities across our nation,” she posted. “That is why our Administration just took another step to lower costs by announcing actions to limit rent increases and build more affordable homes.”
The Biden-Harris administration proposed a $10,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers and eligible sellers, a plan to build 2 million homes and a 5% annual rent increase cap on corporate landlords, among other changes. In June, they also moved closer to an inter-agency effort to root out bias in the home appraisal process.
The National Association of REALTORS® pushed back against the rent increase cap specifically, though the housing industry has broadly supported first-time homebuyer assistance and efforts to increase housing supply through federal incentives.
Just a couple of months ago, Harris also announced plans for new HUD funding to boost affordable housing, invest in economic growth, build wealth and address homelessness across America.
While it’s too soon to tell how things will ultimately unfold, policy-wise, the proposed Biden-Harris housing plan gives real estate practitioners a glimpse of what’s to come.
