Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), recently introduced an ambitious $475 billion bill to address the growing affordable housing crisis affecting millions of Americans across the country. Below is an excerpt from SmartCitiesDive that covers the basics of the bill – which if passed would be primarily funded by raising the estate tax.

– The $475 billion would be allocated over the course of 10 years, with funding dedicated towards the creation and preservation of 3.2 million affordable units. According to an analysis from Moody’s Analytics, the bill would create up to 1.5 million jobs.

– The bill would work to rewrite current laws that allow housing discrimination based on a person’s race, sexual orientation, gender, marital status and income source.

– In an effort to end housing segregation based on race, the bill will provide direct assistance to individuals and families affected by housing regulations from the 1960’s to present day, which have disproportionately affected African American families.

– The bill will also allocate $2 billion to build up to 200,000 homes on Native American tribal land.

From Senator Warren, “Housing is the biggest expense for most working families – and costs for everyone, everywhere are skyrocketing. Rural housing is falling apart and decades of discrimination has excluded generations of Black families from homeownership. My bill would cut rents by 10% and give families in urban, rural, and suburban communities more economic security,” said Senator Warren. “This proposal will attack the rising cost of housing by helping to roll back needlessly restrictive local zoning rules and taking down other barriers that keep American families from living in neighborhoods with good jobs and good schools. After bungling housing policy for decades, it’s time for Congress to make things right and pass my bill.”

To read the proposed bill in its entirety, click here.