A conducted by the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University released in January determined that half of all American renters are “cost burdened,” meaning they pay at least 30 percent of their income on rent. A smaller number of renters, about 1 in 7, pay at least 50 percent of their income on rent, making them “severely cost burdened.” Quite alarmingly, 83 percent of renters making less than $30,000 a year were determined to be cost burdened.
Interviews I’ve conducted this summer with progressive, youth-affiliated organizations around the country confirm the severity of the matter. I have been told repeatedly just how pivotal affordable-housing policy is for young people. This is something that I have found to be starkly universal across the board, regardless of demographic specifics or region.
Where the war in Gaza is the central foreign-policy concern of young voters, it has become clear to me that affordable housing is the top domestic concern, alongside reproductive rights. . Those who are intimately involved with Democratic politics are likely hearing much the same thing, and feel the need to make housing policy a key element of their messaging, much as the U.
K. Labour Party . Housing was indeed a critical component of Kamala Harris’s economic-policy speech given on Friday in Raleigh, North Carolina, ahead of this week’s Democratic National Convention.
The Harris housing plan promises to construct three million new housing units by 2029, seeks.