Across the Upstate, families are being priced out of their neighborhoods. Evictions and foreclosures are up. Corporate investors buy up homes while young families can’t even get started. Rent is up, and access to affordable housing is down.

• Restrict corporate landlords and private equity firms from buying up single-family homes and removing the tax advantages that large corporate buyers currently have over individual homebuyers. 

• Pass a national tenants’ protection act to cap rent hikes, expand the right to counsel in housing court, and ban no-cause evictions.

• Repurpose vacant or abandoned buildings, such as warehouses or schools, into safe and secure affordable homes/complexes

• Decrease the amount of vacant homes by offering tax incentives for landlords who rent or lease to low- or middle-income tenants.

• Crack down on speculative holding by discouraging investors from sitting on empty units by implementing vacancy taxes or limiting bulk purchases.

• Keep Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac public and oppose turning them over to private companies. 

• Increase funding to the Federal Home Loan Banks to help more people find fair and affordable housing.