2022 Federal Housing Policy Priorities: July Update
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic revealed the fragility of a range of U.S. institutions, from our healthcare system to our meager social safety net, the U.S. faced a crisis in housing affordability. In 2008, the bursting of a housing bubble created by a deregulated financial industry offering predatory subprime loans and inscrutable financial instruments destroyed the financial stability of millions. The foreclosure crisis, and the financial crisis that followed, cost American households $16 trillion in wealth as millions lost their homes and saw their savings and retirement funds depleted. Black and Latinx households were hardest hit, losing half their wealth.
In the fourteen years since, the financial industry has only become more entrenched in U.S. housing markets, extracting wealth from low- and moderate-income families and creating a drag on an economy still reeling from the pandemic.
Published by the Center for Popular Democracy and Renters Rising. We are deeply grateful to members of our Center for Popular Democracy’s Affiliate Housing Justice Cohort.