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Kamala Harris on Welfare & PovertyDemocratic candidate for President; California Senator |
HARRIS: Part of what I plan to do is through the tax code, so that if anyone is spending more than 30 percent of their income in rent plus utilities, you get a tax credit. And part of my plan is to create grants for people who live in federally subsidized housing or in historically red-lined communities to give them down payments and closing costs for homeownership. And then we need to create incentives for affordable housing.
FOUR CANDIDATES HAVE SIMILAR VIEWS: Cory Booker; John Delaney; John Hickenlooper; Amy Klobuchar.
Harris is calling for a massive expansion of the EITC, including nearly doubling the income cutoff for eligibility. Hickenlooper and Delaney want to double the EITC. Delaney also wants to make it available to people without children. Booker would increase EITC income eligibility level from $54k to $90k, boost the credit for childless workers.
Sen. Kamala Harris has introduced legislation to create a new tax credit for renters who spend more than 30 percent of their income on rent, capped at the fair-market rent for the area and scaled to the renter's income. She has also proposed a new $100 billion plan to close the racial wealth gap by providing down payment and closing cost assistance to people renting or living in historically red-lined neighborhoods.
The Rent Relief Act ($93 billion a year) would offer a refundable tax credit to people making $100,000 or less and spending at least 30% of their income on rent. The credit would be worth a certain percentage of the difference between their rent and 30% of their income. For the poorest renters, the credit would cover the full difference; for slightly less poor renters, 75%, and so on.
The LIFT Act Rent Relief Act would provide $42 billion to people in poverty.