1) Campaign Email - estone@julianastratton.com
2) Your Platform: Link to your website about housing - My Blueprint to Make Life More Affordable, including a section on housing, can be found here: https://www.julianastratton.com/_files/ugd/9308f6_d48ae70eea924e4ca6ab40056fb22ac2.pdf
3) Your Community: Is your district suffering from a housing shortage?
Yes. Illinois is facing a housing shortage.
4) Your Record: Are there pro-housing policies or specific housing developments you have supported in the past that you would like to highlight?
I am proud of the pro-housing policies and affordable housing initiatives Illinois continues to champion for residents across our state. Last year, Governor Pritzker issued an Executive Order to create the Illinois Director of Housing Solutions position, who is responsible for leading initiatives to address the affordable housing crisis, explore avenues for streamlining economic growth and housing developments, eliminate bureaucratic barriers to housing solutions, and reduce homelessness in coordination with our existing housing-related agencies and robust housing programs. Our Housing Development Authority (IHDA) Board recently approved awards totaling $24 million in federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) to help build and preserve affordable housing developments across the state. Funding will directly support low- and middle-income households, seniors, and veterans, who can be most disproportionately affected by the affordable housing crisis. We also relaunched the first-of-its-kind SmartBuy initiative which has helped eliminate over 33 million in student loan debt while making homeownership more achievable through a more affordable mortgage option. We expanded it earlier this year to provide assistance for 533 new homebuyers, addressing an average of over $29,000 in student loan debt per borrower. Illinois is committed to overcoming the range of economic obstacles to affordable housing and homeownership. Working families who face housing insecurity and struggle with the rising costs of homeownership are central to our fight to expand affordable options in Illinois and make homeownership a realizable part of the American Dream.
5) What are the primary hurdles facing building new housing in Illinois, and what are the best ways to resolve them?
One of the primary hurdles facing new housing developments in Illinois is lack of housing supply, which can be traced to overly restrictive zoning requirements, challenges in approving permitting, unnecessary bureaucracy that delays and overcomplicates the approval process, and insufficient incentives to build new and higher unit dwellings.
Corporations are buying up property, raising rents, driving up home prices, and creating a market where middle class Illinoisans are forced to compete with Wall Street to put a roof over their heads. At the same time, Trump’s tariffs are jacking up the cost of raw materials like lumber, tile, and copper as well as appliances and lighting fixtures. His administration is also rolling back fair housing rules and proposing massive cuts to housing assistance and infrastructure grant programs. Illinoisans are already facing rising rents, fewer options, and weaker safeguards. Young people in Illinois don’t know if homeownership will ever be within reach. These moves could force families already living paycheck to paycheck to shoulder higher costs or risk losing their homes altogether.
We must engage with local and state governments to address these hurdles; at the federal level, I would support coordinating federal policies to both incentivize local players to build more housing and make it easier for them to do so. This could involve tax credits for commercial-to-residential building conversions, grant programs bolstering workforce development, or refining grant selection standards to prioritize high-need communities and reward effective initiatives.
As a United States Senator, I would also work to mitigate the fallout of Trump’s disastrous tariff policies which are driving up supply chain costs, amplifying the costs to build more housing sooner.
Illinois is facing an alarming housing shortage and affordability challenges, and while we can identify these primary hurdles, the next step is to take tangible action to confront and overcome them. I acknowledge that resolving these impediments is no simple feat, and requires intentional, good faith efforts from public and private stakeholders. I am prepared to fight for Illinois’ working families and prospective home buyers to increase housing supply and make homeownership an achievable goal for Americans across Illinois and the United States.
6) If elected, what kind of policies would you propose or support at the federal level to increase housing production, including using federal preemption?
Illinois and communities across the country are facing an affordable housing crisis. The best way to address it is to increase housing production, creating a great supply to fill this critical need.
One obstacle to building more housing developments can be local zoning and permitting regulations that restrict and needlessly prolong the approval process. While zoning requirements and permitting approval largely fall to city, county, and state government entities, federal preemption could be enacted to address outdated or stringent local regulations, and federal funding could be leveraged to motivate local and state action.
I want to be clear that while we work to build more housing, we must do so through a restorative justice lens and focus on developing affordable housing. Our housing crisis disproportionately affects lower-income residents and communities of color, so we must center their voices and address their unique challenges through proposed policy solutions. Increasing housing production in historically marginalized and traditionally underserved areas creates more supply for these communities, lowering the cost of buying a house and making homeownership viable while stimulating their local economies.
Increasing housing supply is also the most effective thing we can do as a country to make housing more affordable. As a United States Senator, I would support legislation that incentivizes the creation of more housing units, engaging public and private stakeholders to participate in programs and agreements which speed up residential developments and invest in communities’ local affordable housing initiatives.
Specific policies at the federal level to increase equitable and affordable housing production, include:
-The creation of tax incentives to encourage the construction of starter homes below the median price point.
-Cutting red tape and eliminating barriers to building and accessing affordable housing.
-Conditioning federal grants on increasing affordable housing.
-Engaging with banks and lending institutions to increase their capacity to invest in affordable housing and community development.
-Invest in workforce development and training programs that bolster our construction and manufacturing workforce in order to build more affordable housing and stimulate economic growth.
-Leveraging federal preemption to overcome unnecessary local regulatory barriers and eliminate discriminatory practices at the local and/or state levels.
7) What is your position on the ROAD to Housing Act?
The ROAD to Housing Act is a comprehensive strategy to address the root causes of our country’s housing crisis by utilizing and expanding initiatives to increase housing supply and accelerate developments, invest in federal grants and programs to build more affordable housing and lower homeownership costs, engage with banks and lending institutions to incentive participation in affordable housing solutions, seeks to mitigate unnecessary bureaucracy and overcome regulatory barriers, and stimulate economic growth and opportunities for local communities. The ROAD to Housing Act also emphasizes investment and the prioritization of lower-income, economically distressed, and rural communities which are disproportionately affected by the housing crisis. It is a pragmatic, bipartisan solution to the complex challenges to housing development and affordability. As a United States Senator, I would be supportive of this legislation.
8) The Build Now Act creates a carrot-and-stick system to modestly reallocate CDBG grants from high-cost-of-living municipalities that are blocking new housing to those that are facilitating it. Do you support tying federal infrastructure, housing, or transportation funds to local zoning and permitting reform? Why or why not?
I support tying federal infrastructure, housing, or transportation funds to local zoning and permitting reform because it can help overcome local regulatory obstacles and unlock housing supply, consequently bringing down the costs of homeownership. The Build Now Act seeks to incentivize municipalities to eliminate barriers to increased home building and reward communities which have a proven track record of making housing developments easier and achievable. Its exemptions for communities facing economic distress, low housing demand, lack of control over local regulatory reform, and recovering from natural disasters are an important provision to ensure this Act is implemented with the best interests of local communities at heart.
9) When it comes to increasing housing supply, what is the correct balance between local control and federal preemption?
Local governments are most familiar with their communities’ needs and capabilities. They also have the greatest control of and impact on zoning requirements and permitting approvals. Meanwhile, the federal government can institute blanket policies which intend to serve all Americans. We should work with our local partners when crafting federal policies, while understanding that there may be instances where federal intervention is in residents’ best interest, such as creating and funding grant programs to subsidize affordable housing initiatives and stimulate local economies. Federal funding incentives can be the mechanism the federal government should use to create positive change at the local level, such as safeguarding against and addressing discriminatory local practices (e.g., the Fair Housing Act) and in streamlining manufacturing or construction standards. As a United States Senator, I would strive to incorporate the voices and concerns of local government leaders and advocacy organizations when working in Washington on policy solutions to increase housing supply.
10) Would you support a change to the allocation of Department of Transportation funding between public transportation and highways? What would be the optimal allocation between the two?
The federal government plays a key role in funding public transportation and highway infrastructure across the country. Both areas face unique challenges to growing and increasing revenue sources and are subject to structural criticism. Public transportation is a significant opportunity area to promote cleaner, more accessible transit. It reduces carbon emissions by encouraging travelers to take the train, bus, or other form of transit over driving a polluting vehicle. It also reduces traffic congestion and reduces the need for higher minimum parking requirements, unlocking land for increased housing developments.
Earlier this year, Illinois passed landmark legislation to improve our public transportation infrastructure. Funding public transit connects communities and expands residents’ access to travel.
Our Highway Trust Fund is confronted with an expanding gap between its revenue and expenditures, and I understand the credible need to critically examine our current allocation and the solvency of our funding structures. Both roads and transit need robust and predictable funding that is necessary to keep our country moving. Ultimately, the federal government must work with local and state governments to address transportation and infrastructure concerns in order to reach a fiscal and systemically sustainable allocation ratio.
11) Other than CDBG grants, what are some other enforcement mechanisms the federal government can use to ensure state and local governments are building enough new homes to reverse the national housing shortage? How would you support these mechanisms?
In addition to strategic CDBG grants, there are enforcement mechanisms that the federal government can use to incentivize increased housing development. Financial incentives like tax credits, bonds, and exemptions encourage local and state governments to address barriers to housing developments and invest in building new homes. Federal agencies can also maintain accountability measures such as aligning federal funding to progress towards housing development goals and rewarding communities’ improvement in achieving affordable housing options. The federal government should be a partner to local and state governments, utilizing its influence and resources to help reverse the national housing shortage.
If elected to the office of United States Senator, I would support enforcement mechanisms like these by amplifying the voices of affordable housing advocates and local and state government partners to ensure the needs of communities are centered when shaping policy solutions. I would use my bully pulpit to publicly support pro-housing initiatives and persuade stakeholders to back them. I would also vote in support of policy solutions which allow the federal government to utilize these enforcement mechanisms. The federal government can play a pivotal role in advancing affordable housing developments, and as a United States Senator, I welcome the opportunity to join the fight to end housing insecurity and expand affordable housing across the country.
