Three more 2020 Democratic presidential candidates, former Vice President Joe Biden, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), have released housing plans.

The three new candidates with housing plans join the ranks of Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), former HUD Secretary Julian Castro (D-TX), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), who have already released housing plans.

Former Vice President Joe Biden
Former Vice President Biden’s Plan for Strengthening America’s Commitment to Justice includes a national goal of ensuring 100 percent of formerly incarcerated individuals have housing upon reentry. To achieve this, he would direct HUD to only contract with entities that are open to housing individuals looking for a second chance and expand funding for transitional housing. Former Vice President Biden would also direct his Cabinet to pursue a comprehensive review of policies that prohibit formerly incarcerated individuals or individuals on probation from accessing resources—including housing support—they need to pursue their second chance.

Mayor Pete Buttigieg (South Bend, IN)
Mayor Buttigieg released The Douglass Plan, “a comprehensive and intentional dismantling of racist structures and systems combined with an equally intentional and affirmative investment of unprecedented scale in the freedom and self-determination of Black Americans.” The Douglass Plan would double funding for federal grants for states that commit to criminal justice reform; lift barriers that prevent formerly incarcerated people from accessing public benefits, including housing credits; and provide five times the Community Reinvestment Act credit to banks who invest more capital in minority-owned CDFIs.

The Douglass Plan also calls for enactment of the 21st Century Community Homestead Act which would create a public trust to purchase abandoned properties and provide them to eligible residents. The 21st Century Community Homestead Act is designed to reverse the effects of redlining, increase minority homeownership and close the racial wealth gap.

Apart from The Douglass Plan, Mayor Buttigieg also calls for investing in affordable housing for working families, reforming unnecessary land use rules that prevent affordable housing construction, redressing the history of housing discrimination against communities of color that has limited economic mobility and fueled the racial wealth gap, ending homeless for families with children, funding national investment in affordable housing construction and expanding federal protections for tenants against eviction and unjust harassment. The affordable housing plan can be found under the security section of the website.

Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)
Senator Klobuchar’s wide-ranging housing plan provides specific policy proposals under five topic areas: expanding access to justice and fighting discrimination, addressing the rural housing crisis, increasing access to affordable housing, providing access to opportunity and increasing access to homeownership. If elected president, the plan states Sen. Klobuchar would provide access to counsel for residents facing evictions, reinstate the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule, make Housing Choice Vouchers available to all qualifying households with children, develop portable personal savings accounts that can be used for retirement and emergencies, direct LIHTC allocations to high opportunity neighborhoods, strengthen Community Reinvestment Act protections and incentivize local governments to update zoning rules. To pay for these policies, Sen. Klobuchar would raise the capital gains rate to the income tax rate for households making over $400,000 and raise the corporate tax rate to 25 percent.