AFFORDABILITY

Problem

America faces its steepest affordability crisis in generations—working people bear the brunt of every cost.

Essential costs like housing, healthcare, childcare, food, and utilities are soaring far beyond wages, plunging millions into debt, forcing painful relocations, and shutting young adults out of the middle class.

Housing costs are out of control.

• Nearly half of renters now spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing.

• Over one quarter spend 50 percent or more.

• Home prices are up more than 40 percent nationally since 2019.

• Speculators, hedge funds, and private equity own millions of homes and rentals — driving up rents in entire neighborhoods.

Wages are not keeping up.

• Worker productivity rose 60 percent since the 1970s

• Typical wages rose just 17 percent.

• The minimum wage has lost 30 percent of its buying power since 2009

Household life costs are exploding.

• Childcare now costs more than in-state college tuition in many states.

• Healthcare premiums and deductibles have doubled over the last decade.

• Food prices rose more between 2020 and 2023 than in any three-year stretch since the 1970s

Corporate consolidation inflates prices.

• Four companies control 80 percent of meat processing.

• Two dominant online retailers.

• Three control most insulin

• Airlines, banks, rental housing, and pharmacy chains are increasingly oligopolies able to raise prices with little competition.

This crisis did not happen by accident. Rather, it results from policy choices that have favored profit extraction over family well-being. To change course, we must face these policies head-on.

Solutions

1. Make housing affordable again

• Build and preserve millions of affordable units through federal investments.

• Expand rental assistance and Housing Choice vouchers.

• Penalize corporate hoarding of housing stock and tax vacant investor-owned properties.

• Cap egregious rent increases in federally backed housing

• Incentivize community land trusts, co-ops, and nonprofit housing to keep homes permanently affordable.

Impact: Housing stabilizes as more affordable units become available, displacement slows due to increased security, and families spend more locally, reducing economic stress from high rents.

2. Raise wages and make work pay

• Raise the federal minimum wage and index it to inflation.

• Restore overtime protections that would cover millions more workers.

• Enforce penalties for wage theft — the largest form of theft in the U.S.

• Expand the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit to lift families above poverty.

Impact: Higher wages and restored protections mean work leads to greater economic stability, reducing exhaustion and the need for multiple jobs to meet basic needs.

3. Break corporate price power

• Enforce anti-monopoly laws to dismantle price-setting power in food, housing, healthcare, shipping, and tech.

• Crack down on predatory pricing, price gouging, and junk fees.

• Tax excessive corporate stock buybacks that prioritize CEOs over workers and consumers

Impact: Stronger enforcement against monopolies and price manipulation ensures prices reflect actual costs, making essential goods and services more affordable for families.

4. Lower unavoidable household costs

• Universal childcare and pre-K to reduce the largest expense for young families

• Universal public health coverage to remove premiums, deductibles, and medical debt

• National paid family leave and sick leave to prevent income loss during illness or caregiving.

Impact: Universal childcare, health coverage, and paid leave lower out-of-pocket household costs, giving families lasting financial relief and flexibility.

5. Invest in transportation and community stability

• Expand public transit, regional transit links, and EV charging access

• Fund infrastructure upgrades to lower utility bills and protect communities from climate disaster costs

• Federal support for rural grocery access, small business corridors, and broadband — so geography doesn’t dictate opportunity.

Impact: Investing in transit, infrastructure, and rural access lowers daily living costs, strengthens local economies, and enables families to remain in their communities with improved opportunities.

Bottom Line

The affordability crisis results from policies benefiting corporations, investors, and wealth holders while abandoning working families.

We fix it by reversing those decisions:

• Treat housing as a need, not a commodity.

• Raise wages to match productivity.

• Rein in corporate consolidation and profiteering.

• Remove essential costs, such as childcare and healthcare, from the private burden.

• Redirect economic gains back to the communities that produce them.

America is wealthy enough for every family to thrive — we have simply allowed too much of that wealth to accumulate at the top, rather than supporting the people who keep this country running.

When working people can finally  afford to live, everything else becomes possible.