(ConservativeInsider.org) – Biden’s White House is pouring $85 million of funds towards affordable housing schemes through different state and local government initiatives.
The Acting Secretary of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, Adrianne Todman, and Vice President Kamala Harris announced the funding for the Pathways to Removing Obstacles (PRO) programs that intend to eliminate roadblocks in affordable housing.
The funding will be directed to 21 states and local governments that will be executing PRO programs, under which they will also change troubling land permitting laws to make housing access easier.
While announcing the funding, Harris stated that this “investment” will help them bring rents down and allow Americans to get their own homes. The vice president also claimed that the president is willing to make 2 million affordable houses to curb the crisis.
Biden’s attempts to introduce the PRO programs came at a time when rising housing prices across the United States have become a major voter concern in the 2024 elections, with young and first-time buyers showing increasing dissatisfaction with the president’s lackluster approach towards the issue.
This is the reason why the Biden administration is trying to push hard on the housing issue almost four months before the presidential elections. Janet Yellen, the US Treasury Secretary, has also announced a separate program to use $100 million of revenue from the pandemic-era investment in affordable housing.
Harris also vowed to bring another investment package of $100 million later this year for the communities that are not covered in this PRO program. The White House has already requested this money in the proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year.
The United States is currently grappling with a chronic housing shortage, which is also contributing to rising overall inflation in the country. In the first quarter of 2024, the median house price in the country stood at $420,800, which was 28% more than the first quarter of 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic was just beginning.
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