One of the most intimate parts of your life is where you live and how you move around. For too long, our elected leaders have not paid enough attention to how their actions – or lack of action – have affected these aspects of your life. And, importantly, these things are very closely related. If we are going to build strong communities with abundant, affordable housing, then we have to build a fair, sustainable transportation system to move people around. And if we are going to invest in smart transportation like buses, rail, and safe streets for all ages to enjoy, then we have to have a sufficient level of housing to support those forms of transportation.
If we continue to think about housing and transportation separately, we will continue down our path of long commutes, environmental degradation, and unaffordability. It’s time for a smarter vision of how we build our cities, our towns, and our neighborhoods.
Housing affordability
There is a housing crisis in our nation, and in Central Florida in particular. When adjusting for wages, the greater Orlando area is the fifth least affordable in the country for housing. Every day, the burden of excessive rent and housing costs rob Central Floridians of the financial stability they need to pay down debt, start businesses, form families, plan for the future, and live comfortable lives. For us to fully realize housing as a human right, we must:
Institute national tenant protections, including rent stabilization, restricting evictions without cause, and a tenant right to counsel:
- I will support legislation like the “A Place to Prosper Act,” which would provide a variety of tenant protections, including a cap on annual rent increases at 3% or the national level of inflation.
- We must amend the 1968 Fair Housing Act by prohibiting landlords from discrimination based on legal sources of income, including housing vouchers and other federal assistance.
- Every American deserves a right to counsel in eviction proceedings, just as they do in criminal proceedings. According to the National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel, only 3% of tenants have legal representation in eviction proceedings, whereas 81% of landlords have legal representation. An equitable system must ensure that tenants have full access to the legal rights to which they are entitled.
- I will support legislation like the “Homes For All Act,” which would direct investment for 12 million new affordable housing units over ten years, with a requirement that these homes remain permanently affordable.
- Residents should have access to free wrap-around services, like healthcare, childcare, and employment assistance.
- I will also push our federal agencies to explore alternate models for public housing, such as mixed-income social housing models that have been successful in parts of Europe, and have been explored for implementation in the United States as outlined by organizations like the People’s Policy Project.
- I will support legislation like the “Housing, Opportunity, Mobility, and Equity (HOME) Act,” which would require recipients of Community Development Block Grants to end exclusionary zoning laws in their jurisdictions.
- Too often, local governments use these outdated laws––with nefarious and often racist histories––to keep certain types of housing and people out of their neighborhoods.
- In Greater Orlando, our population has increased 1.5x as fast as the number of housing units over the past decade, leading to a severe housing shortage and affordability crisis.
- Artificial constraints on housing in the form of zoning laws, parking requirements, and lot sizes must be undone for our communities to find housing abundance.
- For regions that undo their exclusionary zoning practices, I explore the creation of grant-funded programs that invest in local community-builders who can provide much-needed “missing middle” housing in our communities.
- In 2021, Orlando saw a surge of homes sold to investors. This was particularly true in Orlando’s predominantly Black neighborhoods, where as may as 43% of homes purchased were done so by investors. I will ensure that Congress and the Department of Justice explore instances of potential antitrust behavior by large real estate investment companies.
- I will explore opportunities to replace regressive and inefficient taxes like payroll taxes, with economically efficient and anti-speculative taxes like a land value tax
For too long, our country’s transportation system has prioritized private automobile over all else. The results is a system of roads is packed with emission-spewing vehicles, sprawling regions, and highways that frequently barrel through historically black and brown neighborhoods. In Central Florida, the average resident planning for a thirty minute commute has access to one one-hundredth the number of jobs if using public transportation, relative to driving a car. Mobility is opportunity, and our failed transportation policies have robbed too many people of opportunity.
Our current transportation system that prioritizes private automobiles at all costs pushes the cost of car ownership onto private individuals, which costs the average American nearly $10,000 every year when accounting for costs like fuel, maintenance, and depreciation. To build a better, safer, more sustainable tomorrow, we must:
End our national addiction to car-centered transportation at the expense of all other forms of more sustainable, efficient, and competitive transportation.
- I will join with fellow congressional progressives in calling for an end to the arbitrary rule that dictates 80 percent of transportation funding to highways and just 20 percent to transit.
- We must acknowledge the unjust history of many historical highway projects, including Orlando’s I-4, and explore ways to rectify those past wrongs. One program included President Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure bill offers a potential way forward: the reimagining of urban highways. In Rochester, New York, a $22 million investment to turn a highway into a ground-level boulevard is expected to generate $200M in community investment. Smart transportation should spur investment in our communities – not plow through our communities.
- I will support incentives to get folks out of cars and into more sustainable, safer forms of transportation, such as an e-bike tax credit that was incorporated into President Biden’s Build Back Better legislation.
- I will champion efforts to provide federal support for Lynx, SunRail, and potential rail expansions throughout Central Florida, including east-west connectivity.
- I will support a network of high-speed rail connectivity between Orlando and other Florida hubs, including Miami, Tampa, and Jacksonville.
- I will push for federal transportation investments to be made for transit operations, and not just capital and maintenance costs.
- Greater Orlando is consistently ranked worst in the country when it comes to pedestrian and bicycle safety. We must do better.
- I will support sustained funding for federal grants to go towards road improvements that actually improve safety, such as lane reduction, separated bike lanes, and wider sidewalks.
- My office will prioritize coordination with local governments to apply for and win these grants to serve our constituents.
