Senior citizens and people with disabilities face significant challenges in finding affordable housing options, as most homes do not have accommodations that meet their accessibility needs. The VITAL Act will allocate more funding towards the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Program to incentivize the developers to build homes with sufficient mobility and sensory accessibility accommodations, ensuring that those with disabilities and senior citizens can live in homes that are safe, affordable, and inclusive.
The affordable housing crisis disproportionately affects low-income families, who often cannot afford to live in areas of opportunity with quality schools, healthcare, and early childcare services. Research shows that when children grow up in high opportunity areas they are more likely to have successful life outcomes. This act will create an additional 250,000 housing vouchers for families with young children to move to areas of high opportunity.
The housing shortage is particularly acute in walkable, transit-served locations. While demand for walkable, transit-oriented housing has increased, housing production has not followed. The Build More Housing Near Transit Act will incentivize affordable housing to be built along future transit corridors, ensuring federal dollars are effectively leveraged to address the housing crisis. If passed, this act will spur the creation of more walkable, liveable, and equitable communities.
The US has a surplus of parking spaces, with an estimated three parking spaces for every car. Parking structures are expensive to construct and take up valuable land that can be used for building homes instead. By eliminating outdated parking requirements near transit stations, this act will both promote housing development near public transit, and reduce the need for cars while cutting down on pollution from transportation. We need to start prioritizing homes for people over spaces for cars!
Exclusionary land policies, including zoning, destiny restrictions, and other burdensome development regulations drive the severe housing shortage and affordability crisis. The Yes in My Backyard (YIMBY) Act will encourage more thoughtful and inclusive housing development practices by requiring localities to report on and make plans to track discriminatory land-use policies. This will help cities remove obstacles that are currently stopping the construction of much-needed housing throughout the country.
