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Housing

Communities large and small have long faced a housing affordability crisis—and the COVID- 19 pandemic only exasperated these challenges. Earl believes, that like roads, bridges, transit, and water, affordable housing is integral infrastructure central to livable communities.

It has been more than 70 years since the United Nations recognized that housing is a human right. Unfortunately, the United States has failed to live up to that standard. From growing wealth inequality to the climate crisis and structural racism, our most daunting societal challenges are inextricably linked to housing. To effectively address this problem, we must understand it’s roots, and acknowledge that it did not suddenly manifest by itself. Rather, it is the result of decades of deliberate choices from policymakers who scaled back the federal government’s partnership on housing in favor of other priorities.

Earl has been involved in housing policy his entire public life. He witnessed firsthand the public sector's steady retreat from providing affordable, accessible, and safe housing. He believes the federal government must reassert its partnership to become a constructive force for equity, accessibility, and opportunity in solving the housing crisis.

We need a reset. In 2022, Earl released an updated legislative blueprint titled, "Locked Out 2.0: Reversing Federal Housing Failures and Unlocking Opportunity" to follow his housing report from 2019. The blueprint describes how decades of disinvestment by the federal government in safe, affordable housing has fueled chronic challenges in Portland and in communities across America.

  • Public Housing: Once a major source of affordable housing for low-income Americans, Congress has artificially capped the construction of new public housing for the past 20 years.
  • Homelessness: Most of the country's "successful" communities have thousands of people experiencing homelessness due to astronomical rent increases, job loss, eviction, or mental illness.
  • Renter Relief: Rental prices have skyrocketed at a much faster pace than incomes, leaving millions of renters pinching pennies just to get by.
  • Equitable Homeownership: The federal government's largest housing expenditure is the Mortgage Interest Deduction, which is targeted at the wealthiest Americans, while there are minimal tools for helping traditionally marginalized communities buy their first home.
  • Fair Housing: Centuries of discrimination left communities segregated and unequal. The federal government has not established the support structures to remedy the burden it caused.

Read his full report, here.

Earl is working in Congress to enact key provisions of this report into law. Our community needs solutions and resources now.

In January 2020, Earl worked with progressive champions Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, Pramila Jayapal, and Chuy Garcia to unveil the People's Housing Platform. The platform is a progressive framework that includes legislation from all seven members to expand available public housing stock, reduce skyrocketing rents, finally invest in homelessness assistance, and provide opportunities for homeownership. Together, these representatives have boldly declared housing as a fundamental human right and are working to achieve that end.

Earl supported an amendment to the annual appropriations bill in the House that would eliminate the Faircloth amendment that limits the amount of public housing that can be built. Earl also worked with Representative Ocasio-Cortez to pass amendments to block Trump's racist rollback of federal fair housing protections.