Comment on Michael A. Stegman, Walter R. Davis, and Roberto Quercia's “The Earned Income Tax Credit as an instrument of housing policy”

Abstract

Using the housing affordability issue to advocate for an expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit as part of a broader working families agenda is politically shrewd. The American public strongly supports the idea that those who “work and play by the rules” (207) should be able to afford the basic essentials of life, and housing is obviously one of them. From a policy analysis standpoint, however, there are too many unanswered questions to recommend such an expansion as a means of reducing housing cost burdens, although it may have merit on other grounds. Remarkably little is known about the causes and consequences of unaffordable housing for lower‐income working families. It is puzzling, for example, why so many lower‐income renters are experiencing affordability problems when the rental vacancy rate is at an all‐time high. Without a solid understanding of the problem, premature efforts to fix it could have unintended consequences.