Policy Idea 1: Public Housing

While our leaders debate about health care and the many, many ideas out there, another problem plagues many Americans at the moment-- as you sit here and read this blog, nearly 4 million people have lost their homes in foreclosures. For a great number of these people, their families' new homes are nothing more than tents in a larger tent community. This number only adds to the already hundreds of thousands of the impoverished homeless, who have set up shop in shelters across America. There is no way out for these people; indeed, the job opportunities for people without the means of transportation to get to those jobs, or any other necessity for the job market for that matter, are very low.

As stated in President Roosevelt's Second Bill of Rights, the right of every man to have a home shall not be denied. It is true that basic food and shelter are essential elements to living. Without these things, you can not survive, much less raise a family.

Recognizing that shelter is essential to living, and realizing, as Progressives, that we must live in a real world. I am not going to attempt to debate with the right wingers whether it should be a responsibility of government to provide its citizens with a good home. There is no way of swaying the other side to our belief that the overlooked and disadvantaged within our society should be cared for by the central power. Rather, allow us to look at the real elements of the debate: people are homeless, some because of alcohol and abuse, but many more because of recent foreclosures or gross inequalities within our system. More on those later.

Because people are losing their homes (and jobs) at such a quick rate, the government, an institution put into effect to help people, should provide both of these things. I do not see a project more tailored for this than a vast, nation-wide public housing project. It could aid many elements of our economy, all of which are reeling from the past year and a half. Here is how it would work.

1. The government would send agents to go to different cities and towns within the United States, some in the urban parts of the country, some in the rural. These agents would find buildings and lots of land that could be restored as new public housing. They would report back to their state governments.
2. The state governments would report to the federal government about the possible size and scale of the project. The federal government would then, in categorical grants-in-aid, provide the states with funding.
3. This funding would go to districts within the states of the housing project, and these districts would buy the necessary real estate. Real estate- check.
   
4. Then, the real work would begin. Anyone in need of a job would be hired on the spot. These people would go to work, building or reconstructing homes or apartment buildings. Each would be big enough to sustain families of different sizes. Jobs- check.
5. Once a new project was ready to hold a family, a family could apply for it. The application process would be quick and easy. At first, the homes would only be open to people who lost their homes in foreclosures or had previously already been homeless. Homelessness- check.
   
6. The first 3 to 6 months would be rent free, utilities free. After this, the rent would be only high enough to pay back the government for its fees, plus the utilities cost, over a set number of years. Funding- check.
   
7. After the start-up period, anyone in America could take advantage of public housing. This would be a way to make sure it was not a way to segregate by race and class. And, as the middle class pays a large portion of the taxes, they should be able to take some of the fruit of their labor.

If I were in office at the moment, I would have written a bill to this effect by now and, behind the scenes, would be working to get people to sign on to it. All aspects of what we need- low income housing, jobs, real estate purchasing, and...jobs- would be covered. Of course, you could already hear the cries of government intervention from the right. And because all of the Democrats in the House and Senate- with the exception of a few- are spineless, the would bow to their counterparts.

So, instead of this, we'll have a few tax cuts here and there, maybe a subsidy program, and they'll leave the real progress for the next generation.

Good thing we're here.