President Joe Biden released his much anticipated $2.25 trillion dollar jobs and infrastructure plan today. Republican congressional leaders were quick to brand it as an overly large grab bag of progressive priorities, saying that like it was a bad thing. The breath of investments is a strength, but it also means transit and housing investments fall short of what many progressive advocates were seeking.
Two million affordable homes
The plan dedicates $300 billion to social housing aiming to preserve or create two million affordable homes. This works out to $150,000 per unit, suggesting local government and nonprofit matching funds will be needed to hit the target. Some Democratic housing plans have proposed far higher production goals, led by Representative Ilhan Omar’s Homes For All bill seeking to generate 12 million social housing units.
