Housing Was Bipartisan This Year. November Could Change That.

Democrats want a strong housing affordability message ahead of the 2028 presidential election. But they can’t agree on what it should be.

Moderates and Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill are focused on increasing private real estate development — a target of this year’s major bipartisan housing law. But an incoming far-left faction is pushing for policies that could complicate efforts to repeat that cross-party collaboration. They want more government intervention in the form of stronger federal tenant protections and higher investment in public housing.

“In order for us to meaningfully push the needle on a lot of these programs, there has to be public pressure applied to some of these members that have been resistant,” said Melat Kiros, the Democratic Socialists of America-endorsed nominee in Colorado's 1st congressional district. “All that we lack, really, in this moment — it's not resources, it's not time. It's the political will.”

The coming intra-party debate threatens to muddle a housing agenda Democrats say they’ll need to deliver if they capture control of one or both chambers of Congress next year. Although democratic socialist candidates are only expected to take a handful of House seats in the upcoming cycle, they’re hoping to build coalitions with other progressive and populist-minded members, potentially complicating bipartisan housing negotiations.

The cost of shelter is placing serious strain on Americans. Rent and homeownership prices soared in the years following the Covid-19 pandemic. The country faces a multi-million unit housing shortage. And young people are increasingly uncertain about their chances to ever purchase a home.

Emerging members of the party’s left flank say they have a mandate to challenge the status quo and push for more progressive wins. They support increasing housing supply broadly, but their voters — living in deep blue districts that represent the party’s base — also want the federal government to have more aggressive involvement in what they view as a deeply unfair market.

“If you leave it up to the private market and capitalism, who gets short changed every time is the working people that we represent,” said Donavan McKinney, the DSA-endorsed nominee who ousted incumbent Rep. Shri Thanedar in the Democratic primary to represent Detroit, Michigan.

Other Democrats argue that a worsening housing affordability crisis underscores the need to move quickly and build bipartisan consensus. Even if Democrats make significant gains in the November elections, they’ll likely still need to find common ground with Republicans to pass legislation.

“The only route to doing durable, important housing legislation is going to be in a bipartisan fashion,” said Rep. Josh Harder (D-Calif.), chair of the bipartisan Build America caucus that recently released a set of housing affordability proposals. “Even if Democrats take back the House and the Senate — which I expect — President Trump is still going to be in the White House.”

The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act enacted this year included provisions aimed at increasing housing supply by easing regulations and expanding access to home loans. It also included a provision limiting large investors’ ability to buy single-family houses — but the restrictions had a more limited scope than some progressives originally wanted. (Still, Democrats and Republicans alike have touted that provision on the campaign trail as a populist win.)

Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.), who helped spearhead bipartisan negotiations for the last housing legislation, said he hopes his future colleagues on the far left will “come in and see that they've got to have some wins, not just fights.”

“In order to get that bill across, I had to give up some things that I thought were very important. Everybody did,” said Cleaver, the top Democrat on the House Financial Services housing subcommittee. “It's going to be frustrating for anybody to come and believe that somehow they can verbally change the way in which this institution functions.”

Lawmakers have already started working across the aisle to find more areas of agreement beyond what was included in this year’s housing law.

Senate Banking chair Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and ranking member Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who led the charge on that legislation in their chamber, have been reaching out to housing policy groups to collect ideas for another bipartisan package, according to three industry advocates granted anonymity to discuss preliminary conversations. Scott did not return a request for comment.

Warren, who’s been driving public conversation around a second bipartisan housing package, is herself an economic progressive with a penchant for challenging corporate power. For now, she says she’s keeping an open mind to policy proposals from across the political spectrum.

“We need more housing. The ROAD to Housing [Act] has 47 different provisions on how to get there, and I'm going to be working on the next 47,” Warren told reporters in September. “This is a big tent. Come on in with your ideas.”

Other lawmakers have also started floating ideas that could attract cross-aisle support.

The bipartisan Build America Caucus affordability agenda for housing centers largely on making residential development cheaper and easier in order to boost home supply — the same focus as the legislation that Congress passed this year.

The caucus agenda includes suggestions to reduce the cost of building materials and incentivize pro-development policies by states and localities. Lawmakers included similar proposals in a working group report authorized by House Democratic leadership as well as a centrist New Democrat caucus affordability plan released earlier this year.

Tahra Hoops, the director of economic analysis at the Chamber of Progress, a center-left, pro-technology advocacy group providing policy advice to lawmakers, said she expects Democratic legislators “are really going to focus on homing in to prove that Democrats can govern — and do so well — because it's also going to give way for the primaries and also the upcoming general election.”

Democratic congressional leaders aren’t entirely opposed to ideas coming from the left.

“There’s broad support for doing big movement on housing and [an understanding] that now is not the time to hold back,” a senior House Democratic staffer told POLITICO.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer highlighted increasing support for tenant unions as a priority in his own housing agenda early this year. House Financial Services ranking member Maxine Waters has consistently advocated for increased funding for public housing and federal rental vouchers — arguing the federal government should invest $1 trillion in making homes more affordable.

But ultimately, many of those ideas were left out of the most recent housing package in favor of compromises both parties could agree to. And rank-and-file Democrats didn’t publicly protest.

The upcoming question of housing facing Democrats in the next Congress looks less centered on what policies they can internally agree on — and more concerned with their mandate from voters.

Some party members expect a blue wave in response to Trump’s chaotic governance, with voters signaling a desire for more pragmatic, less partisan politicians. But others view this election season’s anti-incumbent wave as proof that the party needs a more populist, aggressive approach to lowering costs.

“A lot of momentum is behind us right now,” said Kiros, the Colorado democratic socialist poised to win a House seat. “That momentum isn't behind us as individuals, but rather it's behind the policies and the platforms that we've been championing.”