Everyone deserves a safe, stable, and affordable place to call home.

Housing is a human right - not a privilege. A place to call “home” should provide safety and a sense of belonging. It is the foundation that allows families to support each other, live in dignity, fulfill basic needs, and connect to the larger community. Whether renting, owning or seeking housing, everyone deserves a safe, stable and affordable place to call home.

As your representative in congress, I will advocate for the building and renovating of more safe and affordable public housing. I will work to restore federal funding with incentives for towns and cities to have the ability to increase the local supply of equitable, sustainable, attractive public and non-profit housing options for working and retired residents. I believe that working families, their adult children, and seniors should be able to find quality housing, integrated into the fabric of the neighborhood, that gives everyone reasonable access to their community, place of employment, and basic needs.

I will fight for universal housing. Every person is entitled to safe, secure, accessible, and affordable housing. No one in this wealthy nation should be unhoused. I will work to shift the societal view of housing from a purely market-driven commodity to a basic requirement for health, dignity, and personal safety.

I believe in these seven principals, in line with the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

• Affordability: Housing costs should not threaten or compromise a household's ability to afford other basic needs like food and healthcare.

• Security of tenure: Residents must be protected from forced evictions, harassment, and other threats.

• Habitability: Homes must provide physical safety, adequate space, protection against the elements, and a non-toxic environment.

• Availability of services: Access to transportation, sanitation, electricity, and potable water.

• Accessibility: The specific needs of marginalized and disadvantaged groups must be explicitly prioritized.

• Location: Citing of habitation in "sacrifice zones” is unacceptable. Residents must have access to employment, healthcare services, schools, and other social facilities.

• Cultural adequacy: Housing must enable the expression of cultural identity and diversity.
  

As your representative in Congress, I will reintroduce the Sanders/Ocasio-Cortez “Green New Deal for Public Housing Act” which highlights the importance of deeply affordable and generously funded public housing as key to solving the affordable housing shortage.

I will support:

• Publicly funded investment in mixed-income communities

• Repair of existing housing, including weatherization and renewable energy retrofitting

• Social housing development to allow the conversion of vacant commercial properties, vacant homes and tax-foreclosed properties into permanently affordable dwellings

• Housing development near transit that meets passive house or zero-emissions standards 

• Incentives for permanently affordable development that, in turn, fosters self-sustaining communities

• Increased tenants’ rights and protections

• A Federal first-time homebuyer assistance program

The unhoused must be treated with compassion and given safe, secure shelter and support services. I will advocate to address the root causes of homelessness and the needs of community members experiencing harms from homelessness. I believe the resources can be made available to transition communities towards providing housing for all and to ensure full democratic participation and inclusion of persons experiencing homelessness in that process.