The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) released their policy manifesto, including their position on housing policy. Their position reads, “Housing is a human right. Build new, publicly-owned social housing, strictly regulate investment properties, establish universal rent control, and guarantee right to counsel for all tenants.”
The platform is very light on details, but would erode private property rights, greatly expand government intervention, and actually reduce the housing supply and quality of housing nationwide.
Public Housing Lowers Housing Quality
The DSA platform calls for building new public, social housing across the country. This proposal ignores decades of publicly built and owned housing across the country in desperate need of maintenance. Public housing in the United States has become synonymous with decay, mold, infestations, and crime. The federal government lacks the knowledge, capacity, and interest in maintaining public housing, and tenants have little incentive to make improvements of their own. Private property ownership ensures property owners are invested in their homes, as they directly benefit from any rents paid or sale of the property.
Additionally, the biggest obstacles to building more housing, whether market-rate or subsidized, are restrictive zoning and land-use laws. Such laws significantly limit where apartment buildings can be located, impose excessive height restrictions, require large lots, and more. The problem isn’t lack of government – it’s that there’s currently too much government regulation.
An oft-cited example of social housing done right is Vienna, Austria, which adopted social housing following the First World War. Yet, as Tobias Peter of the American Enterprise Institute details, Vienna’s housing model has significant drawbacks. Renters are on the hook for paying all utilities, all maintenance and repair costs, and any applicable taxes, in addition to rent, making final monthly costs more comparable to total rents in other European cities. Many social housing units require up-front entrance fees of tens of thousands of Euros, putting the housing out of reach for lower-income households. In fact, a higher percentage of lower-income households in Vienna rent from private landlords than high-income Viennese families. And as demand for housing in Vienna in recent decades has far outpaced supply, private-sector rents have skyrocketed in the 21st century.
Overregulating Investment Properties Harms Working Americans
The DSA also wants to “strictly regulate investment properties.” But this too would reduce the housing supply and harm working-class Americans, the very people the DSA claims to represent. According to the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), investors own just 14% of all single-family homes, while 86% of homes are owner-occupied. And among investment homes, mom-and-pop landlords owning fewer than 10 properties represent over 80% of all investor-owned single-family homes. Small, family landlords already face significant regulatory compliance burdens that are easier for large investors to navigate. Rather than improve housing for Americans, these regulations would hurt the millions of working-class Americans who are small landlords and the millions of Americans living in those properties.
Rent Control Isn’t the Answer
Additionally, the platform calls for instituting universal rent control. Yet, rent control has been a disaster for renters across the country. While rent control may benefit existing renters, the practice has lead to a significant decrease in housing construction and an overall reduction in the housing supply. Developers and builders lose incentives to build when rents are capped and landlords opt to convert rental properties into owner-occupied units or let the unit sit vacant, as cities worldwide have reported fewer new housing units after enacting rent control. Rents for units exempted from rent control often skyrocket, as demand for housing outweighs the housing supply. Maybe that’s why over 93% of economists agree that rent control causes more harm than good. Rather than lower costs for working Americans, rent control would raise prices and reduce housing supply.
AFP’s solutions
Americans for Prosperity sees high home prices as a major problem across the country. The primary cause of high housing costs is excessive government intervention, especially at the local level. Excessive zoning, land-use, and permitting rules, such as single-family only zoning, minimum lot size regulations, setback and floor area requirements, parking requirements, and lengthy permitting delays, significantly limits the amount of new housing nationwide.
The DSA argues the United States needs more housing that is affordable for working Americans. Yet, their solutions would reduce the housing supply and worsen living conditions. Rather than expand government intervention and restrict private actors, AFP believes states and cities across the country should cut red tape and reduce regulations to allow private property owners to build more attainable and accessible housing.
