Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) unveiled a new plan to tackle America's affordable housing crisis Wednesday, just one day after President Trump made headlines when he criticized the problem of homelessness in California.
Sanders, who hopes to challenge Trump in 2020 as the Democratic presidential nominee, laid out a series of ideas to rehabilitate America's public housing, make rent more affordable, strengthen tenant rights, end homelessness, and make it easier for people to purchase a home. He also carved out a section dedicated to combating gentrification.
"While we expand and build new housing, we must ensure that current tenants and homeowners are not forced out of their homes or neighborhoods," the plan reads. "We must also ensure that wealthy and exclusionary neighborhoods do no not prevent new development, forcing gentrification and displacement in low-income and minority areas."
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Some of the ways Sanders would go about this, if elected, include supporting new zoning ordinances that encourage "racial, economic, and disability integration that makes housing more affordable." But there are also more specific proposals aimed at speculators within the plan. That includes a 25 percent "House Flipping tax" that would be levied against people who sell a non-owner occupied property at a profit within five years of purchase, and a 2 percent "Empty Homes tax" on the property value of vacant, owned homes in the hopes of bringing more units into the market and discouraging speculative real estate investments. Read the full plan here.
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