Housing
We have a crisis of unaffordable housing driven by a lack of supply. Central Jersey has the nation's highest rate of young people aged 25-35 who are living with their parents. In NJ-12, we are simply not building enough homes to keep up with demand, and families are paying the price through higher rents and home prices. The contrast is clear: rents are falling in fast-growing cities like Austin and Houston, while housing costs continue to climb here in New Jersey because we make it so hard to build.
Donald Trump’s policies made this problem worse. His tariffs on lumber and steel drove up construction costs, and his indiscriminate deportations and visa restrictions gutted the construction workforce. Those higher costs don’t disappear – it's a tax on construction that gets passed on directly to renters and homebuyers in Central Jersey.
Federal permitting rules also stand in the way of building the housing we need, and the rules are too often abused to delay or block housing and clean energy projects. I support bipartisan permitting reform that protects our environment and upholds strong labor standards, while making it easier to build housing in high-cost states like New Jersey instead of pushing growth elsewhere.
Tackling affordability means increasing supply, not just subsidizing demand. Targeted programs like down-payment assistance can help when they are paid for fairly and paired with new construction, but subsidies alone only drive prices higher. I support repealing the Faircloth Amendment to allow federal investment in public housing and building a system that prioritizes stable, affordable homes over scarcity and speculation.
Homeownership feels increasingly out of reach for many in my generation, especially in New Jersey. Too many New Jerseyans are watching their children raise grandchildren out of state. We need decisive action to increase housing supply, so New Jerseyans can afford to live in the communities where they grew up and so grandparents don't have to fly to Florida or Texas to see their grandchildren.
