Booker unveils housing affordability plan
WASHINGTON — Democratic presidential candidate Cory Booker Wednesday unveiled an affordable housing plan that would provide a refundable tax credit to those whose rents run more than 30 percent of their income.
Booker's campaign says his housing plan would help 57 million people, many of those whose rent costs more than half of their income.
“Making sure all Americans have the right to good housing is very personal to me. I’m determined to tear down the barriers that stand in the way of every American being able to do for their families what my parents did for mine," Booker said in a statement.
Booker would pay for his plan by repealing the latest estate tax cuts and putting those rates back to 2009 levels, which taxed income over $3.5 million per year at a 45 percent rate. Currently, the tax applies to any income over $5.3 million per year which is taxed at a 40 percent rate.
Booker's core plan is to help people pay their rents, but combined with his baby bonds would help make housing more accessible.
Booker says his baby bonds plan, which would give every child born in the United States $1,000 at birth and an amount up to $2,000 based on family income on every birthday until 18, would create a a fund that could be used for a down payment for a first-time home buyer.
Booker often invokes his family's trials with buying a home when he was a child on the campaign trail. He said that his family was discriminated against and had difficulty buying a home when they tried to move to a middle class New Jersey neighborhood.
Booker would also strengthen rules that make it harder to discriminate against those previously incarcerated and push for the passage of the Equality Act to outline discrimination against people based on gender and sexual orientation. He would also create a $40 billion housing fund to refurbish and build low-income housing, provide right to counsel for those facing eviction and invest in affordable housing in rural areas and Indian County.