America Has a Housing Mess, and President Biden Wants to Fix It

U.S. housing policy is practically geologic in form. Since the 1930s, the federal government has rolled out layer upon layer of programs and incentives to help the poor, the middle class, veterans, and others afford homes. What we have today is an accretion of policies and bureaucracy that’s complex and inadequate for today’s needs. “It’s like sedimentary rock,” says Chris Herbert, the managing director of the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies. “There’s never really been a time when we sat down and said, ‘Let’s think about a coherent U.S. housing policy.’”

President Joe Biden wants to do better. With a possible eviction crisis looming and home prices spiraling further out of reach for many buyers, his administration is pushing for the biggest federal housing investment in decades—one that’s also designed to advance goals on climate and racial equity. This includes the more than $300 billion his administration has proposed to “build and modernize” housing as part of its sprawling infrastructure package, as well as a raft of social spending that will increase the amount of money Americans have to keep roofs over their heads. All this would come on top of the more than $50 billion in emergency funds Congress has allocated to help households that missed rent and mortgage payments during the pandemic.