Tackling America's Housing Crisis

News from Representative Himes

Dear Friend,

For most Americans, every bill in the mailbox and grocery checkout these days is pretty unpleasant. Nowhere is our affordability crisis more prevalent than in the housing market.

The median age of first-time home buyers just hit 40 for the first time ever. Half of American renters are spending more than 30% of their income on housing. The country is short as many as five million units of housing. To address this crisis, we need to adopt a whole-of-government approach that gets homes built expeditiously, responsibly, and affordably. I’m pleased to report we are making some progress.

Two weeks ago, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the Housing for the 21^st Century Act, one of the first serious efforts to boost the American housing supply in decades. If signed into law, the bill would cut red tape, streamline permitting, boost lending for construction, and speed projects to completion. That said, progress will only occur if a few “Housing Heroes” – folks steadfastly focused on putting shovels in the ground, repairing our existing housing stock, and getting families into homes – rise to the occasion. I want to tell you about one of those Housing Heroes right here in Southwestern Connecticut.

I joined Park City Communities CEO Jillian Baldwin last November to celebrate the groundbreaking of an affordable housing development in Bridgeport.

When Jillian Baldwin took over Park City Communities, Bridgeport’s Housing Authority, in 2020, she inherited a backlog of $70 million in capital repairs: leaky roofs, old windows, broken elevators, and overflowing dumpsters throughout just about all of the Authority’s 2,500 units. After years of painstaking renovations and refurbishments, the Department of Housing and Urban Development just designated Bridgeport’s Housing Authority as a High Performer. What a turnaround! Together, we have secured a series of federal grants, including $1 million in funding to overhaul an existing structure in Bridgeport’s East End neighborhood into a four-unit multifamily residential property.

There is much more federal support needed to address our housing crisis. But Jillian’s on-the-ground approach– listening to residents, working closely with state and local partners, leading competently, and achieving results – is a big part of addressing our nation’s housing crisis. Whether it's in public housing authorities or private home construction, Housing Heroes like Jillian will be the ones to turn legislative fixes into family homes across the country. More work remains to be done at every level, but with folks like Jillian leading the charge, I am confident we can – and will – fix the American housing crisis.

Onward,

Jim

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