Las Vegas Sun: Bernie Sanders: We cannot continue to ignore the crisis in affordable housing
Monday, April 29, 2019 | 2 a.m.
By Bernie Sanders
Excerpt:
A decade ago, Nevada was the epicenter of a housing crisis that saw thousands of Americans thrown out of their homes and big banks bailed out by the government. Today, the Trump administration is rolling back Wall Street regulations, the banks are demanding weaker mortgage rules and Nevada is once again facing a housing crisis this time in affordability.
Right now, Nevada has the fewest number of affordable rental units of any state in America. On average, there are only 19 affordable rental units for every 100 low-income Nevadans. At one point last year, only 39 out of 1,800 rental units in Clark County were reportedly accepting low-income housing vouchers. Meanwhile, home prices in places like North Las Vegas had more than doubled since the housing crisis 10 years ago, and in recent years, Southern Nevada has had among the highest homeless rates in the nation.
It is not acceptable that millions of our fellow citizens are spending 50 percent or more of their limited incomes to put a roof over their heads, leaving little money for food, transportation, health care or medicine. It is not acceptable that, in communities throughout the country, wealthy developers are gentrifying neighborhoods and forcing working families out of the homes and apartments where they have lived their entire lives.
Unfortunately, we have a president who isnt simply ignoring this crisis, he and his administration are actively making it worse. Instead of expanding federal housing programs, President Donald Trump is proposing an 18 percent cut to them. And instead of working to drastically decrease high rents, Trump is proposing to dramatically raise rents on low-income Americans who receive housing assistance. And instead of expanding affordable housing, Trump is proposing the elimination of the National Housing Trust Fund, which funds affordable housing and was based on legislation I spearheaded in Congress.
How do we address the affordable housing crisis? Here are several ideas. ...
https://lasvegassun.com/news/2019/apr/29/we-cannot-continue-to-ignore-the-crisis-in-afforda/