Input Stories

The Biden administration will launch an initiative aimed at making more homes affordable to more people, according to UPI and Yahoo! News.

What’s going on: “The White House plan will use funding from the bipartisan infrastructure law to control housing costs, officials said,” according to UPI.

• “The plan acknowledges that a shortage of available housing and rising rent is helping to fuel inflation.”
• “Biden’s administration says the crisis has slowly built up over the past five years to create a deficit in affordable housing and exacerbate rent—a situation made even worse by COVID-19.”

Supply chain challenges and product shortages have further exacerbated difficulties, as “[b]uilders can’t find basic materials like lumber or steel and it’s delaying and increasing the price of construction for the millions of homes needed to meet this year’s buyer demand,” according to Yahoo! News.

The plan will use “new financing mechanisms” where necessary, increase federal funding and facilitate cooperation with the private sector to complete construction of new homes through 2022, according to UPI.

• Administration officials said they will also look into options available for finishing partially built homes.

Why it’s important: The current housing shortfall is about 1.5 million homes, according to a 2021 Moody’s analysis cited by the administration.