Policy Document Series · Issue 3 of 35 · April 2026
No American Left Unhoused
The United States faces a housing deficit of 4 to 7 million units. Nearly half of all renters spend more than 30% of their income on housing. On any given night, over 650,000 Americans are homeless — the highest number ever recorded. The Common Good Party's commitment is non-negotiable: no American will be left unhoused.
The Common Good Party's housing policy rests on a non-negotiable commitment: no American will be left unhoused. This is the federal floor. Everything else builds above it.
The policy includes: a national Housing First mandate; housing vouchers as a federal entitlement with no waitlist; a National Housing Corporation targeting 500,000 new units per year; community land trusts permanently removing land from speculative markets; federal tenant protections with just cause eviction standards; institutional investor concentration limits with an algorithmic price-fixing ban; and an upward mobility framework that makes public housing a launchpad, not a destination.
This is not a housing wish list. It is a funded program — financed primarily through the financial transaction tax and wealth tax revenue locked in Issue 2, with the National Housing Corporation self-financing through revenue bonds after initial capitalization.
Housing is not charity. It is infrastructure, and the federal government has always financed infrastructure.
The American housing crisis is a crisis of supply, affordability, and speculation operating simultaneously. Each reinforces the others, and no single intervention addresses all three.
The American housing crisis was not inevitable. It was constructed through decades of deliberate policy choices that privileged homeowners over renters, suburbs over cities, and exclusion over inclusion.
1934
FHA Redlining
The National Housing Act of 1934 created the Federal Housing Administration, which systematically denied mortgage insurance to Black neighborhoods through explicitly racist "residential security maps." The Home Owners' Loan Corporation color-coded neighborhoods: green for white suburbs (insured), red for Black and immigrant communities (denied). This federal policy created the racial wealth gap in housing that persists today — white families directed into subsidized homeownership, Black families locked out of the greatest wealth-building mechanism in American history.
1937
The Housing Act of 1937 — Public Housing Begins
The Wagner-Steagall Housing Act created the United States Housing Authority and the first federal public housing program. But Congress deliberately designed it to fail: units were racially segregated by law, concentrated in the poorest neighborhoods, built to the cheapest possible standards, and income-capped so that any resident who gained economic stability was forced to leave. This was the opposite of Vienna's model — and it poisoned American attitudes toward social housing for generations.
1949
The Housing Act of 1949 — "A Decent Home for Every American"
The 1949 Housing Act declared a national goal of "a decent home and a suitable living environment for every American family." It authorized 810,000 new public housing units. But the urban renewal provisions it funded demolished more housing than it built — destroying predominantly Black neighborhoods for highways, commercial development, and institutional expansion. James Baldwin called urban renewal "Negro removal." The promised 810,000 units were never fully built.
1968
Fair Housing Act
The Civil Rights Act of 1968 (Title VIII) outlawed discrimination in housing sales, rentals, and financing on the basis of race, color, religion, and national origin. Signed one week after Dr. King's assassination. Enforcement was chronically weak — HUD received complaint authority but lacked meaningful enforcement power until the Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988, twenty years later. Residential segregation remained largely intact through subtler mechanisms: exclusionary zoning, steering, and lending discrimination.
1974
Section 8 — The Voucher Pivot
The Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 created the Section 8 voucher program, shifting federal housing policy from building public housing to subsidizing private market rentals. The logic was sound — portable subsidies, tenant choice, market integration. The failure was funding: Congress never appropriated enough vouchers to serve all eligible households. Today, fewer than 1 in 4 qualifying families receive assistance. The waitlist — not the program design — is the crisis.
1980s–1990s
HOPE VI — Demolition Without Replacement
The HOPE VI program (1992) demolished 96,200 severely distressed public housing units. It replaced them with 107,800 new units — but only a fraction were affordable to the original residents. Most displaced families received vouchers into a private rental market with rising rents and discrimination against voucher holders. HOPE VI improved physical conditions at some sites but accelerated the net loss of deeply affordable housing. The federal public housing stock shrank from 1.4 million units in 1994 to under 1 million by 2020.
1970s–2000s
Exclusionary Zoning Hardens
As suburbs grew, local governments adopted single-family zoning, minimum lot sizes, parking requirements, and permitting barriers that made multifamily construction effectively illegal in most of the country. By 2019, 75% of residential land in most major metro areas was zoned exclusively for single-family homes (Brookings Institution). Housing supply could not respond to demand in the places people most wanted to live. Between 1960 and 2000, most American cities also banned boarding houses from their zoning codes — eliminating one of the most affordable housing types precisely when affordability was collapsing.
2008
The Foreclosure Crisis
Deregulated mortgage lending, securitization, and predatory subprime loans inflated housing prices to unsustainable levels. The crash destroyed 3.8 million households through foreclosure between 2007 and 2010 (CoreLogic). Black and Latino families lost a disproportionate share of wealth — the median Black family lost 53% of its wealth between 2005 and 2009 (Pew Research). The underlying supply constraints and zoning barriers remained entirely untouched.
2010s
The Institutional Buyer Era
Private equity firms purchased hundreds of thousands of foreclosed single-family homes at distressed prices. Invitation Homes (Blackstone) and American Homes 4 Rent amassed portfolios of 50,000+ homes each. RealPage's algorithmic pricing software — used by landlords managing over 16 million units — coordinated rent increases across nominally competing landlords. A DOJ antitrust investigation and multiple state lawsuits followed.
2020s
The Affordability Breaking Point
Post-pandemic inflation drove rents up over 30% nationally between 2019 and 2023. Remote work shifted demand to previously affordable markets, pricing out existing residents. Homelessness reached 653,100 in the 2023 point-in-time count — the highest number ever recorded (HUD AHAR 2024). The median home price exceeded 5x median household income nationally and 10x or more in coastal markets. The federal government's response has been inadequate, fragmented, and underfunded.
Every country that has solved its housing crisis — or prevented one — has done so through government-led supply expansion, not market deregulation alone.
| Country | Model | Key Feature | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vienna | Gemeindebauten (municipal housing) | 62% of residents in subsidized, mixed-income housing; rents 20–25% of income | Rents 50–60% of comparable European capitals |
| Singapore | HDB public housing | 80% live in government-built housing; 90% homeownership rate | Most successful public housing program in history |
| Finland | Housing First | Unconditional housing + support services; 14,000 units converted since 2008 | 68% reduction in long-term homelessness since 2008 |
| France (SRU) | Social housing mandate (Loi SRU, 2000) | Municipalities must maintain 20–25% social housing | >€100M in annual fines; housing stock growing |
| Tokyo | National zoning code | 12 national zones; minimal local veto; ~150,000 housing starts/year | Real housing prices flat for 20 years despite population growth |
| United States | Fragmented | No national housing policy; local exclusionary zoning | 4–7M unit deficit; record homelessness |
Vienna — The Gold Standard
Vienna's Gemeindebauten system is the most successful social housing program in the Western world. The city of Vienna directly owns and operates 220,000 housing units and subsidizes another 200,000+ through limited-profit housing associations. Over 60% of Vienna's 1.9 million residents live in some form of subsidized housing. Rents average 20–25% of household income — compared to 30–50% in comparable European capitals like London, Paris, and Amsterdam (City of Vienna Housing Report, 2023). Crucially, Vienna's social housing is not segregated by income: buildings integrate market-rate, moderate-income, and low-income units in the same structures, with identical design quality. Residents who earn more are not forced out — they pay higher rent but keep their housing. The result is mixed-income neighborhoods with none of the concentrated poverty that defined American public housing.
Singapore — 80% Public Housing
Singapore's Housing and Development Board (HDB), established in 1960, houses approximately 80% of the nation's 5.9 million residents in government-built apartments. The homeownership rate exceeds 90% — the highest in the world — because HDB flats are sold on 99-year leases at below-market prices, with subsidized mortgages funded through the Central Provident Fund (mandatory savings). Ethnic integration quotas ensure no racial concentration in any block. The government builds to demand: when waiting lists grow, HDB accelerates construction. Singapore demonstrates that large-scale government housing production is compatible with high homeownership, fiscal sustainability, and social integration (HDB Annual Report 2023/24).
Tokyo — National Zoning, Stable Prices
Japan's national zoning code establishes 12 standardized zones set by the central government, with minimal local override authority. Tokyo issues approximately 150,000 new housing permits per year — more than all of California (population 39 million) and more than all of England (population 56 million). The result: real housing prices in Tokyo have remained essentially flat for two decades despite steady population growth, while prices in comparably sized cities with restrictive zoning (London, San Francisco, Sydney) have doubled or tripled. Tokyo proves that permissive supply is the single most powerful tool for price stability (Nikkei Asia / Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism data).
Finland — Housing First, National Policy
In 2008, Finland adopted Housing First as national policy: every person experiencing homelessness receives permanent housing without preconditions — no sobriety requirement, no treatment completion, no "earning" housing through program compliance. Support services are offered actively but are not mandatory. Finland converted 14,000 shelter and temporary housing units into permanent supported housing. The result: long-term homelessness fell 68% between 2008 and 2023 (Y-Foundation / ARA Finland). Finland is the only EU country where homelessness has consistently declined. The cost per person is lower than the revolving-door cycle of shelters, emergency rooms, and incarceration that the precondition model produces.
The common thread across all four models: government-led supply expansion, mixed-income integration, and long-term public investment in housing as infrastructure. The American failure is not proof that "government housing doesn't work." It is proof that the specific American version — racially segregated, concentrated poverty, chronically underfunded — was designed to fail. Vienna, Singapore, Tokyo, and Finland prove what works.
The Common Good Party's housing policy is built on seven parts, each addressing a specific structural failure. The non-negotiable commitment: no American will be left unhoused.
The Federal Floor
Housing First — National Policy: Every federally funded homeless
program must adhere to Housing First principles. Permanent housing is offered without requiring sobriety,
treatment completion, or program enrollment. Support services are actively offered but not required as
a condition of housing.
Voucher Entitlement: Housing vouchers become a federal entitlement. Every qualifying
household receives a voucher within 90 days — no waitlist, no lottery. Currently fewer than 1 in 4
eligible households receive a voucher. That rationing ends.
Anti-Criminalization: Federal civil rights standards prohibit municipalities from
criminalizing sleeping in public space without providing adequate housing alternatives. A person cannot
be arrested for having nowhere to go.
Building the Supply
National Housing Corporation (NHC): A federally chartered public
benefit corporation modeled on Vienna and Singapore. $200 billion initial capitalization over 10 years.
All units priced at 80% AMI or below. Mixed-income, mixed-use design — no concentrated poverty.
Production target: 500,000 new units per year. Revenue bonds make it self-sustaining after
capitalization.
Social Housing Mandate: Every municipality above 50,000 residents must maintain 15%
social/affordable housing (25% in high-cost metros). Non-compliance triggers escalating financial
penalties and federal override authority.
Community Land Trusts: $50 billion federal CLT Capitalization Fund. CLTs acquire land
permanently, removing it from speculative markets. Housing on CLT land remains affordable forever
regardless of resale.
Tenant Protections
Just Cause Eviction: Landlords must document enumerated causes —
nonpayment with cure period, material lease violation with notice, owner move-in with 6-month notice
and proof, or redevelopment with mandatory relocation assistance.
Rent Increase Notice: Any increase above 5% requires 90 days written notice. Any
increase above 10% requires 6 months notice.
Anti-Displacement Relocation: Tenants displaced through no-fault eviction receive 3
months rent as relocation assistance, paid by the displacing party.
No National Rent Control: The evidence is clear — hard price caps reduce supply. The
Netherlands' 2024 expansion drove private landlords to sell, shrinking rental supply. Instead: just
cause eviction, notice requirements, and massive supply expansion. Local flexibility preserved.
Institutional Investor Reform
MSA Concentration Cap: No single entity may own more than 3% of
single-family homes in any metro area. Existing holdings above the cap divested within 5 years, with
right of first refusal to tenants and nonprofits.
Algorithmic Price-Fixing Ban: Shared rental pricing software (the RealPage model)
explicitly classified as per se price-fixing under the Sherman Act. Automatic treble damages. New DOJ
Housing Antitrust Division with dedicated enforcement.
Tenant Right of First Refusal: When landlords owning 10+ single-family homes sell,
tenants and nonprofits get a 90-day right of first refusal at appraised value.
Federal Supply Compact
Metropolitan areas receiving federal transportation funding must demonstrate housing production at 3%+ of current stock annually or lose access to new infrastructure grants. Voluntary 15-zone National Advisory Zoning Framework with streamlined permitting, 20% construction tax credit, and priority NHC capital for adopters. ADUs permitted by right in all residential zones. Mixed-use development encouraged in transit corridors. Federal surplus land offered first to housing agencies, CLTs, and nonprofits at below-market rates.
Local Innovation
States and localities are partners, not just compliance targets. The federal Housing Innovation Grant program funds localities that build above the federal floor: addiction counseling housing with on-site services; mental health supportive housing with co-located psychiatric services; re-entry housing with job training and legal services; veterans housing with VA-integrated peer support. All specialized programs must provide services within housing, not before it — no one sleeps outside while waiting for a spot.
Upward Mobility Framework
NHC Education Compact: Residents who enroll in community college,
trade school, or workforce certification receive tuition coverage, monthly housing credit, childcare
subsidy, and on-site job placement.
Moving-Up Bonus: Residents who voluntarily exit NHC housing receive a one-time bonus
equal to 6 months of previous rent — deposited into a restricted account for first/last month and
security deposit. Leaving feels like winning.
Graduated Rent: Residents who earn more but stay pay a sliding scale up to 80% of
market rate — always less than what the Moving-Up Bonus makes leaving worth.
Safety Net: Residents who exit retain waitlist priority for 5 years. Job loss, health
crisis, or divorce does not mean starting over.
The program roughly doubles current federal housing spending over a decade. It is financed primarily through mechanisms already locked in Issue 2.
| Source | 10-Year Estimate |
|---|---|
| Financial Transaction Tax (Issue 2) | $500B – $1 trillion |
| Land Value Capture mechanisms | $100 – $200 billion |
| NHC revenue bonds (self-financing) | Self-sustaining after capitalization |
| Reallocation from inefficient programs | ~$100 billion |
| Cost Component | 10-Year Estimate |
|---|---|
| National Housing Corporation capitalization | ~$200 billion |
| Housing voucher entitlement | $400 – $600 billion |
| Community Land Trust Fund | ~$50 billion |
| Housing First + homeless services | ~$80 billion |
| Supply compact infrastructure incentives | ~$100 billion |
| Federal land disposition and CLT seeding | ~$20 billion |
| TOTAL | $850B – $1.05 trillion |
The program also includes $10 billion over 10 years in grants and low-interest loans for the construction, conversion, and renovation of Modern Community Residences (MCRs) — the reinvention of boarding houses banned by mid-century zoning. MCRs provide private, lockable rooms (minimum 120 sq ft) with climate control, high-speed internet, modern shared kitchens and bathrooms, common spaces, and on-site management. Rents capped at 30% of area median income for a single person — $400–$800/month in most metros, below the cheapest studio apartment in nearly every American city. Federal funding is conditioned on cities permitting MCRs in any zone that allows multifamily housing, reversing the zoning bans that eliminated this housing type.
Total 10-year program cost: $850 billion to $1.05 trillion. The NHC is self-financing after initial capitalization — revenue bonds backed by rental income make the National Housing Corporation sustainable without perpetual appropriations. Primary funding comes from mechanisms already locked in Issue 2: the financial transaction tax ($500B–$1T over 10 years), 1031 exchange closure above $500K, and mark-to-market taxation on unrealized gains above $100M net worth. For context: the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act cost $1.9 trillion over 10 years, primarily benefited corporations and the wealthy, and left no tangible infrastructure behind. The housing program costs roughly half that, produces permanent infrastructure, generates rental income, reduces emergency services costs, and improves health outcomes and labor productivity.
Implementation is phased to ensure enforcement capacity scales with program scope. No American sleeps outside while waiting for a system to come online.
The strongest objections to ambitious housing policy deserve honest engagement. Each is addressed below with evidence.
"Public housing doesn't work — look at the projects."
American public housing failed because it was designed to fail — racially segregated, concentrated poverty, deliberately underfunded, and architecturally hostile. Vienna's social housing is architecturally distinguished, mixed-income, and integrated throughout the city. Singapore houses 80% of its population in government-built housing with 90% homeownership. The lesson is not that public housing fails — it is that the U.S. version was a policy choice, not an inevitability.
"Rent control is the answer."
No. The evidence from the Netherlands (2024), San Francisco, and New York is clear: hard rent caps reduce supply. Private landlords sell or convert to condos. New construction stops. Future renters are harmed to protect current renters. The answer is just cause eviction (so tenants can't be priced out through lease termination), notice requirements, and massive supply expansion so landlords must compete for tenants.
"Ban institutional investors entirely."
An outright national ban would reduce rental supply while modestly increasing for-sale supply — harming the majority of affected residents who are renters, not buyers. The actual problems are algorithmic price coordination (a cartel) and geographic concentration. The 3% MSA concentration cap and the Sherman Act price-fixing classification are more targeted and more effective than a blunt ban.
"We can't afford $1 trillion in housing."
The United States spent $1.9 trillion on the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which primarily benefited corporations and the wealthy. The housing program costs roughly half that over a longer period and produces tangible infrastructure that generates rental income, reduces emergency services costs, improves health outcomes, and increases labor productivity. The NHC is self-financing after initial capitalization.
"Housing First enables addiction."
Finland has reduced long-term homelessness by 68% using Housing First — the largest sustained reduction in any European country. The evidence across dozens of randomized controlled trials in the U.S., Canada, and Europe is unambiguous: housing stability is the precondition for treatment to work, not the reward for completing it. A 2020 Lancet meta-analysis found Housing First participants maintained stable housing at rates 2–3x higher than treatment-first programs. Requiring sobriety before housing means requiring the hardest thing a person will ever do while they are sleeping outside. It does not work — and the data proves it.
"Just build more — the market will fix affordability."
Supply expansion is necessary but not sufficient. New market-rate construction in high-demand cities takes 15–25 years to "filter down" to affordability levels that serve low-income households (Rosenthal, 2014 — Journal of Political Economy). In the meantime, millions of families are cost-burdened or homeless today. Tokyo demonstrates that permissive zoning keeps prices stable — but Tokyo also has a massive public housing stock and strong tenant protections. No country has solved housing affordability through supply alone without public investment. The answer is supply AND social housing AND tenant protections — not supply OR public investment. The CGP plan does all three.
"Government housing always fails — look at the projects."
This is an argument against the specific American version of public housing, not against public housing as a concept. Vienna's Gemeindebauten houses 62% of the city's residents in architecturally award-winning, mixed-income communities — rents average 20–25% of income (City of Vienna, 2023). Singapore's HDB houses 80% of its population with a 90% homeownership rate — the highest in the world. American public housing failed because Congress deliberately designed it to fail: racially segregated, concentrated in the poorest neighborhoods, built to minimum standards, and chronically underfunded. The NHC is modeled on Vienna and Singapore — mixed-income, mixed-use, architecturally competitive, and self-financing through revenue bonds. The lesson of the "projects" is not that government can't build housing. It is that racist, underfunded government housing fails — exactly as intended.
"NIMBYism is property rights — homeowners should control their neighborhoods."
Exclusionary zoning is not a free-market outcome — it is government regulation that restricts what property owners can build on their own land. Single-family zoning tells a property owner they cannot build a duplex, a small apartment, or a boarding house on property they own. That is the opposite of property rights — it is government restriction of property rights to protect incumbent homeowners' property values at the expense of everyone who needs housing. By 2019, 75% of residential land in most major metro areas was zoned exclusively for single-family homes (Brookings Institution). The result: a 4–7 million unit housing deficit and record homelessness. The federal supply compact does not override local control — it conditions federal infrastructure funding on housing production, the same way federal highway funding has been conditioned on speed limits, drinking ages, and safety standards for decades.
Housing policy intersects with multiple other platform positions. The following cross-references identify dependencies and the party's clear position on contested housing questions.
| #2 | Taxation | Financial transaction tax, 1031 exchange closure, and wealth tax revenue fund the housing program. Mark-to-market applies to large REIT and PE housing portfolios. |
| #4 | Education | NHC Education Compact, Moving-Up Bonus, and Voucher Bridge. Free community college and trade school as universal programs NHC residents access with additional support. |
| #12 | Criminal Justice | Re-entry housing as a component of criminal justice reform. Housing access for formerly incarcerated individuals prevents recidivism. |
| #13 | Labor & Wages | Housing affordability directly affects labor mobility. Workers spending 50%+ on housing cannot move for better jobs — suppressing wages and productivity. |
| #15 | Social Safety Net | Section 8 voucher entitlement. Housing First as the foundation of the social safety net. Medicaid integration with supportive housing services. |
| #20 | Corporate Power | Algorithmic price-fixing ban (RealPage model). FTC Algorithmic Enforcement Division. Economy-wide antitrust provisions reinforce housing-specific protections. |
| #25 | Infrastructure | Federal Housing Supply Compact ties transportation infrastructure funding to housing production. Transit-oriented development requirements. |
| #35 | Affordability | Housing costs are the single largest household expense. The housing program is foundational to the entire affordability agenda. |
| Should housing be a right? | Yes — federal floor guarantees no one is unhoused |
| Housing First? | Yes — unconditionally and nationally |
| National rent control? | No — supply suppression. Federal tenant protections instead |
| Social housing at scale? | Yes — NHC + CLTs + 500K units/year target |
| Zoning reform? | Yes — supply compact tied to infrastructure funding |
| Institutional investor ban? | No — concentration limits + algorithmic price-fixing ban |
| Modern boarding houses? | Yes — Modern Community Residences with federal grants, modern standards, zoning bans reversed |
| Local flexibility? | Yes — above the floor, never below it |
| Who pays? | Financial transaction tax + wealth tax (Issue 2) · Total: $850B–$1.05T over 10 years |
"No American will be left unhoused. This is the federal floor. Local governments retain full authority to design housing programs tailored to their communities, but that flexibility runs in one direction only: they may build stronger programs, never weaker ones."— The Common Good Party
Sources & Citations