Thirty-two Democratic lawmakers are urging President Joe Biden to use his remaining time in office to draw on an array of executive branch agencies to rein in housing costs.
“We strongly encourage you to cement your legacy by addressing one of the most pressing economic issues of our time and take swift action to create more housing and lower housing costs for Americans everywhere,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter sent to Biden on Wednesday and obtained by HuffPost.
The Biden administration has already taken a few steps to curb housing prices, which was one of the factors adding to the spike in inflation in 2022. It has asked Congress to pass legislation against price gouging, provided $325 million in grants to build “deeply affordable” housing and spur economic development in specific neighborhoods, and asked federal agencies to identify surplus public lands that could be used for housing.
But the letter sent to Biden, with signatures gathered by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.), asks Biden to go further “in the remaining months of your Administration.”
Additional Democratic signees include Sens. Chris Murphy (Conn.), Cory Booker (N.J.) and Peter Welch (Vt.), and Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Jamie Raskin (Md.) and Pramila Jayapal (Wash.). Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) also signed on, bringing the total number of signees to 33.
The group said Biden should have the Federal Housing Finance Agency require that apartment and other multifamily unit loans backed by mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac include protections against price gouging and discrimination based on tenants’ sources of income.
The group also asked the Federal Trade Commission and the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB) to take further steps against “junk fees,” arbitrary charges tacked on to rental costs with little justification.
“Hidden junk fees can create thousands of dollars in additional costs for renters and homeowners, adding significant stress to households. Junk fees can increase a tenant’s risk of eviction for nonpayment of rent and the likelihood that tenants accumulate rental debt, hindering their ability to obtain housing in the future,” the group said.
The group also asked Biden to look into rising costs to consumers to obtain their own credit scores, saying the cost to get credit information from FICO, the largest credit scoring firm, has risen by as much as 400%.
“The [Justice Department] should investigate whether FICO and others are engaging in behavior that violates federal antitrust law. And the CFPB should explore potential remedies to exploding credit reporting costs, including a cap on fees that credit reporting agencies can charge and interoperability requirements that would allow consumers to move their credit scores without new fees,” the group said.
The last proposal involved federal properties and housing. Under a 1987 law, agencies are supposed to make surplus government property available to developers serving the needs of homeless people. But from 2016 to 2023, only 11 properties were leased, they said.
The group asked that the financial conditions housing providers must meet to qualify for leases under the law be eased to boost participation.
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