Harris vs Trump: Housing Policies

Where Do Trump and Harris Stand on Housing Policies?

The current presidential election has been anything but uneventful. As the country’s housing crisis and cost of homes continue to soar, housing policy is on the forefront of voters’ minds. With the November 5, 2024 election just two days away, both candidates have issued their housing plans to address the lack of affordable and accessible housing in the United States.

Housing affordability has affected many Americans’ decision to buy a home. Rising interest rates and limited housing supply have caused frustrations and stress to many individuals and families. Since the Great Recession, the United States housing production has decreased significantly as the population continues to grow and home prices and rental costs continue to rise.

Here is a breakdown of Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump’s proposals to tackle the housing crisis.

Kamala Harris

$25,000 Down Payment Assistance to First-Time Homebuyers

Kamala Harris has proposed a detailed plan aimed at making housing affordable and accessible to homebuyers and renters. Her plan includes:

• Adding 3 million of new housing units over the next four years

  
  

• A new tax incentive for starter homes

  
  

• Expansion of tax incentives to build affordable rental housing

  
  

• Reduced red tape for builders and federal funds for cities to speed up construction of homes

  
  

• Allocation of $40 billion in innovation fund to support innovative local solutions for housing development

  
  

• Offering first-time homebuyers up to $25,000 in down payment assistance

Homelessness has hit a record-high of 653,104 people since January 2023. This is more than a 12.1% increase over the previous year. According to 2021 estimates from Freddie Mac, the United States needs 3.8 million more homes for sale and rent to meet demands.

Harris’ housing plan has a multi-prong approach to bring down the cost of housing and make home ownership and renting more affordable. 

Despite Harris’ ambitious housing plans, the proposal has been met with skepticism by critics. Congress would still need to approve the funds for the proposed $25,000 down payment assistance program and the $40 billion innovation fund for local governments to create solutions for housing.

Opening Up Federal Lands For Housing

Harris supports making federal lands for housing, which would entail selling the land for construction purposes with a certain percentage of the units to be offered as affordable housing.

The federal government owns about 650 million acres of land, or about 30% of all land in the United States. Harris has not released any specific detail on this proposal.

Donald Trump

Opening Up Federal Lands and Zoning Law

The Trump campaign has not released a proposed plan, but he has "promised" the following:

• Creating tax incentives for home ownership and first-time homebuyers

  
  

• Reducing “unnecessary” regulations on home construction

  
  

• Making some federal land available for residential construction

Trump has promised to tackle zoning and other construction regulations to speed up housing production. The Trump campaign has also expressed support to make “certain” or “limited portions” of federal land for home construction.

Deporting Immigrants

Most significantly, Trump claims that he will lower housing costs by reducing inflation and stopping illegal immigration. Trump and his campaign have tied their plan for mass deportations to the housing crisis. 

Trump said that he will remove 11 million immigrants living in the United States, which he argued will reduce the population and lessen demand for housing as well as lower costs.

Critics have said that housing and immigration are tied, as the ability to build houses rely on availability of workers, and about 30% of construction workers are immigrants.

Shutting down the border or deporting immigrants would impact the country’s capacity to build more housing. 

Single-Family Zoning

Trump has long opposed building multi-family housing and supported single-family zoning, which would exclude other types of housing. Trump has said that he would reverse Biden administration efforts to integrate wealthy communities with lower-cost housing, criticizing Biden’s plan as “abolish[ing] the suburbs.” 

With respect to homelessness, the Trump campaign has outlined an explicit proposal to “ban urban camping” and to create “tent cities” on “inexpensive land.”

Although Harris and Trump have different approaches, it is clear that housing is a big focus for both presidential candidates.

One thing is also clear: both Republican candidate Donald Trump and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris agree that housing affordability and accessibility are key to solving the crisis.