During his 2020 presidential campaign, candidate Joe Biden committed to investing $640 billion over 10 years to assure that “every American has access to housing that is affordable, stable, safe and healthy, accessible, energy efficient and resilient, and located near good schools and with a reasonable commute to their jobs.”

Of the $640 billion total, he proposed $300 billion for new housing construction, $100 billion to build and upgrade new affordable housing, and funding to create more than 400k new homes for people experiencing homelessness.

Upon taking office, President Biden’s proposed 2021 HUD budget commits $47.9 billion to federal housing programs, most of which is earmarked for rental assistance.

While his proposed housing budget and goals are certainly a step in the right direction, federal funding still needs to increase exponentially in order to undo the damage from decades of chronic underfunding that began under Reagan.

Given how insufficient HUD has been for the past four decades (thanks, Reagan), Biden’s housing proposals are only a small step in the right direction and far more funding is needed to make a demonstrable impact for the millions of Americans who are rent-burdened, housing insecure, or without homes altogether.

In addition to increasing overall HUD funding, it’s equally important to dramatically boost spending for the construction of new housing to help address the country’s severe housing shortage and create housing at all levels of affordability.

While federal funding alone won’t solve every housing problem everywhere, devoting more money to housing is an essential measure.

And you can start right now by sending a letter urging Members of Congress to increase HUD funding and new housing construction for multi-family homes at all levels of affordability.