Our first priority in addressing the housing crisis must be to center those most disenfranchised by it: the Michiganders currently living in their cars and out on the streets. Housing is a homelessness problem, a shortage problem, and a market-power problem, and a real plan answers all three.

Rapid Rehousing

I will pass a bill adding a comprehensive rapid rehousing program to the Department of Health and Human Services. Every unhoused Michigander receives housing placement in a landlord-contracted rental, funded not by tax payer money but through tax credits that landlords can use to cover any taxes owed to the US Government. Mental health and substance abuse treatment where needed, and ongoing employment placement services.

Tenants contribute 30% of their income to rent, rising gradually to full rent as they stabilize. Landlords get guaranteed rent and a government lease that fully insures their property against damage. Unpaid rent becomes an interest-free debt to the government, recovered through tax refund offset.

When a tenant becomes self-sufficient, the government-landlord lease expires and the tenant takes over the lease directly, so exiting the program doesn't uproot them.

To pay for it, I will cosponsor Senator Ed Markey's Slash the Pentagon Act, capping the Department of Defense budget at $750 billion against a proposed $1.1 trillion request, a $350 billion difference from a budget that has never passed a full financial audit.

Build More Housing

The single largest driver of housing costs in high-demand areas is restrictive local zoning that blocks new construction. I will create a federal incentive fund, opt-in, for localities that reform zoning to allow multi-family and missing-middle housing.

This builds on the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, the bipartisan law Senators Elizabeth Warren and Tim Scott passed on July 11, 2026, which streamlines environmental review and limits large investors buying up single-family homes. I will build on it with further permitting reform, removing local bans on manufactured and modular housing, and interstate reciprocity for construction trade licensing.

I will cosponsor the Bipartisan American Homeownership Opportunity Act, a first-time buyer tax credit up to $50,000 paired with a builder credit for starter homes and low-income apartment buildings, so it adds supply instead of bidding up scarce rentals. I will also expand Michigan's underused Mortgage Credit Certificate program.

Stop the Rigging

Too much of the housing market has become a vehicle for speculation instead of a place for people to live. I will:

• Close the build-to-rent loophole that lets corporate landlords buy up single-family housing stock.
• Repeal the 1031 exchange and accelerated depreciation subsidies that make speculative accumulation more profitable than renting a home to someone who needs it.
• End Opportunity Zones as they are currently structured. This is a capital gains tax break for wealthy investors with no requirement that anything affordable actually gets built. It has funded self-storage facilities and gold vaults.
• End algorithmic rent-fixing at the source. Any property receiving HUD, Fannie Mae, or Freddie Mac financing will be barred from using software that pools nonpublic competitor data to set rents, and I will direct the Department of Justice to treat this kind of coordination as unlawful nationwide.

Fund What Works

Ending subsidies for speculation means redirecting that money, not cutting help for people. I will reform the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit to require public reporting of how much of every credit dollar reaches construction. I will redirect savings from ending the 1031, depreciation, and Opportunity Zone subsidies toward Continuum of Care funding, Emergency Housing Vouchers, and USDA Rural Development and NAHASDA expansion for the Upper Peninsula.

Protect Renters and Families

I will push eviction expungement to remove a major barrier to housing access. I will fight to protect Continuum of Care funding and the Emergency Housing Voucher program, and oppose new HUD work requirements and time limits that hit people who are already working, in school, or caregiving. I will require just-cause eviction standards and rent-increase notice requirements on any property backed by HUD, Fannie Mae, or Freddie Mac. I support the Equality Act in full, so Title VI protections extend to federally backed housing.

Urban and Rural: Different Problems, Different Solutions

Detroit's problem is corporate landlords and rising costs; the system already exists there, it just needs protecting and funding. The Upper Peninsula's problem is distance and capacity, with a fraction of the staff and budget per square mile that counties downstate have. I will work to open federal land already set aside for uses like logging to affordable housing, with tribal and local input from day one, paired with USDA rural housing dollars instead of a HUD program built for cities.

Rent Control Is a Local Decision

Whether a community adopts rent control is a decision for that community, not Washington. I will not let a federal bill preempting state or local rent control laws reach a Senate vote, and no state government should override that decision for its communities either.

Why This Can Pass

This is not a partisan problem. A rehousing program built on fiscal responsibility and a direct path to work, paired with a supply-side plan that ends corporate subsidies instead of expanding government, is one Americans across the spectrum can stand behind.