This April marks the 56th anniversary of the Fair Housing Act, a landmark piece of legislation which outlawed housing discrimination and hoped to foster racial integration by giving everyone the ability to access the same neighborhoods and housing opportunities.   

Unfortunately, all these decades later, the dream of achieving fair housing for all is still out of reach and housing discrimination impacts the lives of millions across the U.S. every year. Historically redlined neighborhoods still face chronic disinvestment resulting in fewer resources, worse housing options and barriers to financial advancement. While racial discrimination has been outlawed, new proxies have appeared. For example, landlords can discriminate based on the source of someone’s income. This means that people with Housing Choice Vouchers, who are largely people of color, can be denied tenancy because they need to pay their rent with the support of a voucher.  

All of us should be able to have a roof over our heads and a safe place for our loved ones to lay down at night. But being able to access safe housing that families can afford continues to be a point of stress for many across the country. In the U.S. today, the shortage of rental housing units has reached almost 14 million. The drastic lack in affordable housing has caused housing prices to skyrocket and has exacerbated the state of severe inflation. Renters in the United States on average spend nearly a third of their income on rent, a cost burden often too high for many to sustain over time, and increased rates of foreclosure and eviction has contributed to rising rates of homelessness. Over 582,500 individuals are currently experiencing homelessness in communities across the country. Around 171,000 of these individuals are living in the state of California.  

West Hollywood Homelessness Wild Tents Camp. Homeless People in the Middle of the Modern American City / Photo: Welcomia 

Earlier this Congress, Ranking Member Maxine Waters (CA-43) introduced a robust housing package with goals of expanding the affordable housing market, shrinking inequities in homeownership and wealth, and fighting against homelessness. Families of color experience being cost-burdened as both renters and homeowners at rates 10 percentage points higher than white families—making action on housing affordability a matter of racial economic justice.  

These bills would be the largest investment in affordable housing that the United States has ever seen. Making renting and homeownership an achievable reality is especially valuable for families of color and for our goal to level the playing field for all families to get to their economic freedom. Research indicates that if ownership levels were equal across racial lines, the overall racial wealth gap would shrink by approximately 30 percent.  When we demand housing justice for all, we’re calling for a world where Black, Indigenous, Latino, and Asian families can thrive.] 

Waters’ package is split into three pieces of legislation: the Housing Crisis Response Act of 2023, the Ending Homelessness Act of 2023 and the Downpayment Toward Equity Act of 2023. Here’s a breakdown of what each of these bills would do respectively: 

Makes Critical Investments to Address the Affordable Housing Crisis: 

• Invests over $150 billion including:  

• $65 billion towards making improvements to pre-existing public housing 

• $24 billion in rental assistance 

• $1 billion towards project-based rental assistance contracts 

• Allows for the construction of  1.4 million affordable homes and would help more than 300,000 households pay their rent  

Provides Support for People Experiencing Housing Insecurity and Homelessness: 

• Transforms Housing Choice Vouchers into a federal housing guarantee  

• Authorizes $10 billion to build affordable housing for people experiencing homelessness 

• Makes the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness permanent  

• Bans housing discrimination on the basis of veteran status and income source 

Actualizes the American Dream of Owning a Home for Low-Income Families:

• Aims to make homeownership a more feasible reality for socially and economically disadvantaged individuals 

• Allocates $100 billion to aid first-generation homebuyers in buying their first home by providing financial aid to buy down interest rates, pay closing fees and a down payment assistance program 

This historic investment in affordable housing, homeownership and combatting homelessness translates to a wealth of expanded opportunities for low-income individuals and people of color living in the United States. Building more affordable housing also has the potential to create thousands of jobs and prompt significant growth in tax revenue. We must continue to prioritize combatting the affordable housing and homelessness crisis and naming the lack of affordable housing in the United States as a driving force for economic and racial inequality. This Fair Housing Month, we want to do more than talk about these issues. Now is the time to email your representative and urge them to support and cosponsor these bills to finally address the housing crisis.