With her work keeping her near Capitol Hill, Ward 6 renter Rasheedah Hasan has been on the hunt for her first home in Washington, D.C. for four years. The St. Louis, Missouri, transplant had her eye on Ward 6, but like many local prospective homebuyers, Hasan has grappled with the region’s slim pickings, so she has since expanded her search to other areas in the District, including Ward 7.
“D.C. is where I first want to plant roots,” said Hasan, founder of Collective Impact Strategies, a legislative consulting firm based in Washington, D.C. “Since 2020, I worked to aggressively save monthly employment income for three consecutive years for a downpayment, which was impacted after a job transition and operating a new business.”
Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, revealed a housing plan that lays out what she says is a solution to America’s barriers of purchasing a home.
As part of the Harris-Walz campaign’s economic plan, the newly announced and still developing housing platform aims to end the housing supply shortage over four years by building 3 million new housing units for new homeowners and renters. The housing plan also includes providing first-time homeowner assistance in the amount of $25,000 for down-payment assistance and a $10,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers–an historic effort.
“I don’t think that it’s an absolutely impossible goal,” said Jung Hyun Choi, Ph.D., principal research associate with the Housing Finance Policy Center at the Urban Institute. “With the cost of construction, it’s going to take time. Right now, increasing down payment assistance can have an inflation rate impact, especially if the supply is slow. There’s a lot of information that needs to be clarified.”
When first unveiled, the plan tailored its assistance to first-time, first-generation homebuyers but it has since expanded the plan for all prospective first-time homebuyers.
“They want to give a sense that they want to prioritize first generation homebuyers, those that don’t have a parent who owns a home,” added Choi. “A first-generation program will have a role in leveling the playing field.”
While eager and excited to learn more about the plan’s first-time homebuyer perks, Hasan said the still-developing plan won’t delay her trajectory to become a homeowner in the coming months, perhaps in advance of the election.
“I don’t think I am slowing down my home-buying search or the process to wait for this housing promise to move forward,” said the self-proclaimed millennial who is a prospective first-time homebuyer, but not a first-generation homebuyer. “In terms of delivering on this promise, as a former Rep. [Tim] Walz staffer, I have full confidence he will do the same for first-time homebuyers that he does for veterans, graduate students, returning citizens or myself. If he’s unable to deliver, he will tell us directly; he has integrity.”
Prospective homebuyers are advised to sacrifice a bevy of things in preparation for homeownership, but when it comes down to it, people are still unable to purchase homes with ease–especially first-time homebuyers. For those who have secured, unsecured and revolving debt, or are not in a position to save often, or at all, purchasing a home is in even less reach with high interest rates and overpriced inventory.
“I completed the NACA [Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America] pre-approval process in 2020, completed the Home Purchasers’ Assistance Program training class through Lydia’s House in 2024, and received Inclusionary Zone/Affordable Dwelling Unit certification again in 2024 through Housing Counseling Services,” Hasan told The Informer.
A Detailed Look
Despite following instructions and jumping through many hoops, buying a home has been no easy task for Hasan due to many of the barriers the Harris-Walz plan hopes to tear down, which also includes a “first-ever” tax incentive for home builders who build starter homes for first-time homebuyers in an effort to address to supply shortage.
The Harris-Walz campaign also unveiled plans to introduce a federal fund to spur innovative housing construction, building on the proposed $20 billion Biden-Harris innovation fund, $40 billion would be distributed amongst local governments to create solutions for prospective homeowners and renters, including building housing. The plan also looks at making certain federal lands eligible to be repurposed as new affordable housing developments.
Former President Trump hasn’t officially released a housing plan as part of his presidential campaign, but it is hinted at in Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s Presidential Transition Project.
While the Trump campaign has, in fact, distanced itself from Project 2025, former Trump administration officials authored the plan. In Chapter 15 of Project 2025, it states that the Department of Housing and Urban Development Department Secretary “should initiate a HUD task force consisting of politically appointed personnel to identify and reverse all actions taken by the Biden Administration to advance progressive ideology.” The document does not lay out what “progressive ideology” is.
Earlier this summer, the Department of Housing and Urban Development announced that it was working on increasing the supply of homes around the country. In June, Acting Secretary Adrianne Todman spoke to The Washington Informer about its efforts to not only address the housing crisis, but to increase housing options for Black residents. She said HUD’s Fair Housing Administration (FHA) products helped 160,000 Black homeowners avoid foreclosure and 250,000 new Black homeowners buy a home.
“We have worked really hard to make sure Black families keep their homes,” she said. “Even in the midst of the roller coaster of the past few years with the pandemic, home rates increasing, interest rates increasing, HUD is really proud of that number. Many of our consumers of our FHA mortgage insurance tend to be Black and Brown folks who have a difficult time in the conventional market.”
Further, Todman also announced a Manufactured Home Community loan product, which provides an FHA-insured financing option for the purchase, refinance, and revitalization of manufactured home communities to address the shortage in housing inventory.
“This country has been in a housing deficit for 15 years because we have not built to the need and demand on the rental and owner side,” said Todman. “If there’s more cars on the car lot, more computers in the store, it becomes more competitive in terms of what the price point is … we just need to build more homes. So many people are having issues finding that starter home. We have kicked our starter home production ideas into gear.”
She added that the FHA grant would award builders to include manufactured homes as affordable housing.
Current Options for Local First-Time Homebuyers
As prospective homebuyers await to learn which leader will exact what housing plan, local jurisdictions have programs, policies and resources that are currently open and available to assist residents in their first-time home buying efforts.
According to the D.C. Office of the Deputy Mayor’s Planning and Economic Development (DMPED), scores of plans are already in place to ensure prospective homeowners are armed to become learned, well-prepared and resourced homebuyers–including some of the programs Hasan has already participated in.
According to DMPED, many of the challenges related to increasing Black homeownership specifically are non-legislative: increasing access to credit, providing financial support, and increasing the supply of affordable homes.
In 2022, Mayor Muriel Bowser created the Black Homeownership Strike Force to support and increase Black homeownership.
Additionally, current programs for residents include:
- Home Purchase Assistance Program (HPAP) which awarded in FY 23 nearly $70 million in loans to first-time homebuyers with low or moderate incomes;
- D.C.’s Department of Housing and Community Development loans totaling more than $26 million in FY 24 reserved for HPAP homebuyers by January 11, 2024;
- Inclusionary Zoning affordable housing set aside in new developments;
- Permanently affordable homes through the Douglass Community Land Trust.
In Prince George’s County, Maryland, the Department of Housing and Community Development’s Pathway to Purchase (P2P) First-Time homebuyer Assistance Program offers downpayment and closing cost assistance to income-eligible, first-time homeowners in the county. It also rolled out its Fairmount Heights Net Zero Homes and Microgrid Project, where the county provided $1,350,000 in HOME Investment Partnerships Program funds for six new affordable single-family, detached zero energy homes to low- to moderate-income eligible, first-time homebuyers.
Despite the existing local programs created to generate more homeownership interest and affordability, there’s still work to be done to further motivate prospective buyers in the current market.
“We’re seeing a lot of young adults getting frustrated,” said Choi. “They can really see a difference in the market, had they bought one or two years ago. They can do a pretty easy calculation that they would have spent much less than now. In order for the Harris-Walz housing plan to have real impact, there needs to be time for everything to line up.”
Hasan has not lost hope in her homeownership journey and is also excited about the prospect of the Harris-Walz plan helping other young, prospective homebuyers.
“My goal is to build intergenerational wealth by accumulating assets and building equity, to pass down to invest in, or use myself,” she said. “The blessings of the Lord make you rich and he adds no sorrow with it. I think this plan will be a blessing for many people.”