My housing plan will invest $500 billion into building, preserving, and restoring more than 3 million units and create 1.5 million jobs. Today, I'm expanding on those efforts with my plan to protect and empower renters. elizabethwarren.com/plans/protecti…
Stagnant wages, sky-rocketing rents, and a stark shortage of affordable options are squeezing America's renting households. Gentrification is displacing communities of color, landlords are exploiting their power over tenants, and Wall Street is snapping up apartment complexes.
My plan starts with protecting and upholding the rights of tenants. Landlords shouldn’t be able to arbitrarily push families out of their communities to make an extra buck, or because of thinly-veiled racism and discrimination.
I’ll work to secure tenants’ rights nationwide. And I’ll also push to create a new Tenant Protection Bureau—modeled after the CFPB—to enforce tenants’ rights, take on bad actors, and make sure landlords keep affordable housing within reach for working families.
Next, we'll tackle skyrocketing rent costs. My administration will stop states from preempting local tenant protection laws, including rent control, by denying access to billions of dollars in federal grants to states who maintain those laws.
We must invest in safe, healthy, and green public housing. I’ll push for investments in new public housing construction. And I’ll fight to close the repair backlog, expand disability accessibility, and for 1:1 replacement of any units that have to be removed or demolished.
Finally, I'll fight exploitation by corporate landlords. Private equity firms have become some of our country’s biggest landlords—snatching up properties, raising rents, evicting tenants, and spending millions lobbying against tenant protection legislation.
My plan to rein in Wall Street will hold private equity firms accountable. And I’ll stop federal dollars from going to predatory landlords and lenders with a history of harassing tenants, forcing tenants to live in dangerous or indecent conditions, or redlining our communities.
Everyone in America should have a decent, affordable, and safe place to live. We need to tackle our housing crisis head-on—and I'm ready to fight for the big, structural change renting families need.
