President Biden’s Housing Plan Could Be the End for the “American Dream”

Coming into office in 2021, Joe Biden promised to implement a variety of policies across many issue areas. The focus of late has been affordable housing. Biden is determined to make affordable housing available to low-income families. While trying to bring housing to everyone is a noble cause, the method that Biden is using to accomplish this will have dire consequences on what is left of the American Dream. 

By bringing back the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Act (AFFHA), Biden is hoping to end discrimination and systemic racism in housing. Enacted under the Obama Administration, stated purpose of this statute was to work toward creating fair housing by forcing communities who received federal funding to “assess local segregation patterns, diagnose the barriers to fair housing and develop plains to correct them.” Each community was to turn in their plans to HUD every five years. The communities whose plans were not approved by HUD would lose their federal funding. 

The act was suspended by HUD Secretary Ben Carson under the Trump Administration. Carson correctly recognized that this rule does not, in fact, work to make housing more fair. Instead it destroys single-family suburban areas by giving the federal government control over them. 

The AFFHA essentially moves urban living into suburban areas. It requires that local suburban towns build high-rise apartment buildings in the middle of neighborhoods to accommodate low-income minority families who typically could not afford larger suburban living. This is a horrible idea for a number of reasons. The biggest problem with this is that it gives total control of local zoning to the federal government, completely undermining the power of local governments.

Local governments have control of their municipalities for a reason: they understand them. This is precisely why the Founder’s prioritized federalism into the government. They understood that the state and local governments are better equipped to handle issues pertaining to their areas. They’re constantly aware of what’s happening in their cities and how to best solve their problems of which zoning is included. 

Zoning is how the local government determines how to best develop the land in its control. It also helps to ensure that property values remain stable. Forcing suburbs to accommodate apartment buildings will cause them to have to discard current zoning and drastically expand water and sewer lines along with schools and implement mass transit lines. All this work requires higher tax rates, which then disincentivizes people from moving to or continuing to live in the suburbs altogether. 

Another reason the AFFHA act is a disaster waiting to happen is that it removes one of the main reasons why people choose suburban living in the first place: safety. 

The suburbs are an ideal place to live because they are known for their family friendly and generally quiet environment. Suburbs create peace of mind that many families desire. Urban living is just not as safe. While crime rates in urban areas have declined over the last few decades, it is still higher than the rates of suburban areas. 

Inner cities are notorious for gang related crimes. This is part of the reason that people move to the suburbs. They feel safer in areas where gangs have much less influence. Bringing the cities to the suburbs will also bring gangs and other city-centric issues with it.

High costs of living and unsafe neighborhoods are a stark contrast to the little house with the white picket fence in the quiet cul-de-sac that most people associate with the “American Dream” and American suburbs. Implementing the AFFHA actually works to destroy that dream. Since only certain people can afford to move to the suburbs, the Biden Administration seems to think that this means that suburbs are unfair. 

Living in a house outside the city and raising a family is a common goal amongst many Americans. They work hard to try and achieve it and many do, regardless of background. Punishing them for accomplishing their dream is not going to make suburban living more attainable for everyone. It will just make it unbearable for everyone.