June is National Homeownership Month, but the housing affordability crisis is putting home ownership farther and fartherout of reach for too many working families in Oregon and across America.
When I was growing up, my parents, like many of their generation, were able to save enough money to buy a modest home for our family in Oregon. I still live in that same blue-collar neighborhood. But it’s a different story for my children’s generation. As prices to rent and buy skyrocket, young people are worried that they will never be homeowners. Today, too many folks are struggling to find a safe and affordable place to call home, while too many others have been forced into homelessness. This is unacceptable and unsustainable.
Economists estimate that Oregon is short 140,000 homes today – and we’ll need to build at least 500,000 new homes within the next 20 years just to keep up with demand. So, it was terrific to see our state legislature recently pass $376 million to boost housing production in addition to the federal dollars I’m bringing home to Oregon to help.
Housing is vital for our economy. Every year, I host town halls in all 36 Oregon counties. Up and down the coast and across the state, I hear about the urgent need for more workforce housing. Companies tell communities they won’t bring their businesses to town without available housing for their employees, but housing developers say they won’t build new homes without knowing that new businesses are coming with employees to buy or rent them. It’s a classic Catch-22 with our coastal and rural communities caught in the middle.
That’s why, as Oregon’s representative on the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, which funds the federal government, I’m pushing to invest in housing programs. Here are a few quick examples. In March, we passed funding for fiscal year 2024, which included $1.6 billion for national rental assistance funding, $48 million for Rural Housing Service Vouchers across the country, and $12 million to support home-building non-profits, like Habitat for Humanity. Additionally, Oregon has received $90 million this year from the U.S. Treasury’s Homeowner Assistance Fund.
But we can’t only treat the effects of the housing crisis – we also need to go after those profiting off sky-high housing prices.
For generations, the greatest wealth builder for the American middle class has been homeownership. Now, the powerful millionaires and billionaires who run hedge funds want to take that slice of the American pie away from working families and put it on their own over-flowing plates. In 2021, investors bought nearly 17,000 homes in Oregon – homes that should have gone to families. It’s a similar story all across the country. That same year, in just one area of Atlanta, hedge funds bought more than 40 percent of the homes for sale. Hedge funds often make all cash, no inspection offers. Working families can’t compete with that!
That’s why I’ve introduced the End Hedge Fund Control of American Homes Act. It will kick hedge funds out of the housing market and require them to sell the homes they own to working folks because houses should be homes for families, not profit centers for hedge funds.
Early in my career, I helped build homes with Habitat for Humanity because I saw every day how lives were changed for the better when folks could afford a decent home in a decent community. So, I’ll keep up the fight for affordable homes for working families in Oregon and across the country.
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