Housing — A Roof Over Every Head

The United States is short between 4 and 7 million housing units. Exclusionary zoning, NIMBY resistance, and local permitting barriers suppress construction in exactly the high-demand markets that need it most. In San Francisco and New York, it can take years and millions in permitting costs to build multifamily housing that would take months in Tokyo or Vienna.

Nearly half of all renters are now cost-burdened, meaning they spend more than 30% of their income on housing. Over 80% of extremely low-income households spend more than half their income on rent. The median home price now exceeds 5× median household income nationally — and more than 10× in coastal markets like California and the Northeast.

More than 650,000 Americans are homeless on any given night — the highest number ever recorded. Roughly 40% are unsheltered, sleeping outside or in vehicles. California, New York, Florida, and Washington account for over half of all homelessness, driven entirely by housing cost concentration, not by poverty alone.

Large institutional investors have purchased hundreds of thousands of single-family homes. In some Sunbelt metros they now own 25% of single-family rentals. The RealPage algorithmic pricing software coordinates rent increases across nominally competing landlords — a cartel operating in plain sight, driving rents upward in lockstep across entire markets.

For the 22 million cost-burdened renters, the change is immediate. Voucher entitlement guarantees help within 90 days instead of years. Just-cause eviction ends surprise lease terminations. Rent increases above 5% require 90 days of notice. Displaced tenants get 3 months rent as relocation assistance. Housing stability finally becomes a baseline, not a privilege.

For first-time homebuyers and young families, the NHC's half-million new units per year stabilizes prices across metropolitan areas. The Moving-Up Bonus — six months rent at exit from NHC housing — doubles as a down-payment accelerator. Community Land Trusts make affordability permanent: resale appreciation can't price out the next generation.

For the unhoused, Housing First becomes the law of the land. Permanent housing comes immediately, with services offered on top — never as a gatekeeper. Anti-criminalization standards prohibit arresting people for sleeping outside when no adequate alternative exists. Finland's data over 15 years shows this approach cuts long-term homelessness by two-thirds.

For seniors, veterans, and people in recovery, localities keep full flexibility to layer specialized housing — addiction treatment support, mental health housing, re-entry programs — on top of unconditional access. Services come inside stable housing, not before it. A city can run a 200-unit supportive housing program with intensive counseling; it just can't make entry to any housing conditional on treatment compliance.