JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Vice President Kamala Harris made a campaign stop in Savannah, Georgia on Wednesday while her campaign also hosted an event in Jacksonville on housing costs.
Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan was joined by State Sen. Tracie Davis and City Councilman Rahman Johnson to promote the housing plan presented by Harris. The plan, which was released earlier in August, aims to help more people on the path toward homeownership, which Deegan believes will help the city as a whole.
"Families are struggling to make rent each month and the goal of buying a home is currently out of reach for many of our neighbors and throughout the state," Deegan said.
Deegan was joined by fellow democrats inside of a garage of a new build home on Jacksonville's Westside.
"You know how we continue to perform as a city that's so attractive to people," Deegan said. "We do that by creating a policy that gives us the greatest return on investment."
Under the plan, the vice president wants 3 million homes to be built over the next four years, tax incentives for builders who construct homes for first-time home buyers and the establishment of a $40 billion fund for local governments to fund housing solutions.
"I love that it gives us incentives at the city level to create policies that actually make this better," Deegan said.
Travis Moss owns T.M. Homes, a company that builds homes in Jacksonville, including the one where Wednesday's campaign event was held. While that particular home is not considered part of his affordable housing building project, Moss said that every home he builds utilizes granite countertops and vinyl plank flooring because of its durability and quality finish.
Moss said the city pilot programs on homeownership have increased the amount of first time buyers in the housing market.
"This is the most I've seen since I've been doing it of people getting qualified in those price ranges and probably thought they couldn't get qualified, the programs are definitely helping," Moss said.
Seventeen of the homes T.M. Homes built in the last year are considered affordable and are priced between $192,000 to $225,000. Moss grew up in Jacksonville and said he even built his mother's house after watching her rent almost her entire life.
"For me it's definitely personal because I relate to those communities, that's where I'm from, those are the people I really want to help," said Moss.
First Coast News reached out to the Republican Party of Duval County regarding the Harris housing plan and received the following statement from Vice Chairman Steve Adams:
"Housing is unaffordable because of the Harris-Biden economic policies to begin with. Inflation and high mortgage rates are simply the results of these policies. Infusing more free money into the housing market would only fuel inflation and drive housing costs even higher. Now, Democrats are planning to basically give free housing to illegal immigrants which would decrease available inventory and further raise costs. VP Harris has helped create this problem and now she plans to make it even worse."
Deegan said City Council will determine if her homebuying pilot programs will continue in future years. A link to those programs can be found here.