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

Abstract

The article by Stegman, Davis, and Quercia is a careful, comprehensive analysis of the current impact of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) on the housing cost burdens of working families. Its major proposal, a graduated supplement to the EITC to reflect housing costs, is compared with my broader concept of addressing severe cost burdens through supplements to major income support programs. Criticisms of my concept, chiefly administrative difficulties and incompatibility with the EITC benefit structure, are discussed. My primary concerns are that Stegman, Davis, and Quercia's proposal does not sufficiently target families with severe housing costs and that the formula for calculating the additional benefit does not reflect diverse housing costs throughout the country and provides the smallest increases to the recipients with the lowest incomes. However, it is more important to generate discussion of the reality that “income policy IS housing policy” than to argue about details.