After former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro and Sen. Cory Booker recently dropped out of the presidential race, there are currently just two non-white candidates in the race for the Democratic nomination. A new piece by Curbed [1] examines whether the lack of non-white candidates in the presidential race, save Andrew Yang and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (neither of whom qualified for the most recent debate), may have an impact on whether housing issues unique to minority communities receive a strong focus during the 2020 elections.
Curbed particularly notes the departure of Castro. With the most inside knowledge regarding the housing crisis and issues related to vacancy and homelessness, Curbed notes that Castro was the most vocal candidate about housing issues.
The recent debate featured little discussion of housing matters, though most candidates have released their potential presidential housing plans. Most of the proposed plans, researchers at the Urban Institute recently noted, put the focus on addressing the ongoing housing inventory shortage.
“The solutions proposed by Democratic presidential candidates are an acknowledgment of the single largest problem our housing market faces today: lack of supply,” said Karan Kaul and John Walsh of the Urban Institute in a blog post. [2]
During his run, Sen. Booker unveiled a plan to address housing affordability challenges [3]. Sen. Booker reportedly modeled his plan for renters' credit on legislation he recently introduced.
CNN [4]reported that while this plan "is similar to a plan by his 2020 rival Sen. Kamala Harris, a California Democrat who has centered her own housing policy on a subsidy for low-income renters," his plan goes further by introducing "sweeping changes to restrictive zoning laws, coupled with federal incentives to build more affordable housing."