Public Housing
Democratic socialist housing policy provides direct public construction and ends speculation, creating affordable housing for everyone.
Public Development Corporation
We use the Vienna model with direct public construction. Housing is publicly owned, mixed-income, and built by union labor. Rent is set at 25% of income with no exceptions. Quality is high because public ownership means no profit extraction, just service provision.
Vienna proves this works at scale. Roughly 60% of Vienna residents live in social housing. It’s high-quality, beautiful, mixed-income, and affordable. This isn’t experimental. It’s proven policy.
End Speculation
We ban corporate ownership of single-family homes. Corporations buying homes to extract rent drives prices up and workers out. We tax empty units held for speculation. If you own housing and keep it empty to manipulate prices, you pay penalty taxes. We aggressively enforce against landlord collusion. We make community land trusts the default structure for collective ownership.
Zoning Reform
We tie federal infrastructure funding to zoning reform. States and cities that maintain exclusionary single-family zoning lose federal support. We eliminate single-family exclusive zoning that artificially restricts supply. We allow density where people want to live. We enable mixed-use development so people can live near work and services.
Why Not Tax Credits to Developers
Democratic “affordable housing” tax credits give public money to private developers. Developers build luxury buildings with token “affordable” units. “Affordable” is defined as 80% of area median income, which is still unaffordable for most workers. Developers pocket tax credits and build what’s profitable for them, not what communities need.
This is extraction dressed as reform. We build public housing directly instead.
How This Is Funded
Progressive taxation of wealth and capital funds construction. Public development corporations build and own housing. Rents at 25% of income cover maintenance and operations. No profit extraction means costs stay low.
When workers currently paying $2,000 per month ($24,000 annually) in rent pay $1,250 per month ($15,000 annually) for better public housing, they save $9,000 per year. Even with moderate tax increases to fund construction, they come out far ahead.
Integration With Full Platform
Breaking corruption ensures construction money goes to building, not consultant studies. Progressive taxation funds development without burdening workers. Worker cooperatives in construction build housing while workers benefit from public investment. Zoning reform reduces artificial scarcity. Anti-speculation enforcement prevents extraction.
This is how we solve the housing crisis. Not tax credits. Not subsidies to developers. Direct public construction of beautiful, high-quality, affordable housing for everyone.