Democratic Presidential Candidate Pete Buttigieg has released his plan for housing, including plans to increase homeownership and affordable housing access through investment programs. Buttigieg's plan, titled “Coming Home: An Agenda for Housing Justice in America," calls for increased homeownership among low-income Americans, and attempts to combat discrimination in housing.
The plan includes reinstating the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Rule and the passing of the Community Homestead Act.
"The vast majority of neighborhoods that were redlined nearly 100 years ago remain disproportionately poor and segregated to this day.8 From redlining to racist mortgage covenants, it will take decades of intentional policy to undo our past wrongs."
In an effort to increase access to affordable housing, Buttigieg proposes a $4 billion investment in matching funds toward low0income housing programs, and a plan with congress to put in place an affordable 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage
"In a Buttigieg administration, families across the country will have greater access to affordable housing and communities will have the building blocks for inclusive revitalization," Buttigieg's campaign site said. "His administration will right the wrongs of the housing crisis, including by establishing strong consumer protections and implementing policies to rebalance our economy in favor of American families. And it will reverse the effects of many generations of policy that locked some Americans out of homeownership and a place to live in neighborhoods of economic opportunity."
Buttigieg's plan follow fellow candidate Michael Bloomberg's proposal to Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. CNBC states that Bloomberg’s plan would bolster reforms either put in place or strengthened as part of the 2010 Dodd-Frank act in response to the Great Recession.
Tim Rood, Chairman and Founder of The Collingwood Group, a SitusAMC company, said the idea of merging the GSEs was discussed soon after they were taken into conservatorship. The plan, however, was quickly abandoned as lawmakers realized that "the only thing potentially worse than a duopoly in mortgage finance was a monopoly."
"The rivalry between Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is critical for maintaining the competitive DNA of the two organizations to ensure innovation and disruption that serves lenders and borrowers alike," Rood said.