A new bill could enable more families to purchase homes and come closer to achieving the American dream.
The bill, called the American Dream Down Payment Fund, is being co-sponsored by U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Brighton.
The bipartisan bill would assist families in making a down payment as well as a closing payment for a home.
This also could carry a fairly heavy price tag: First-year grant funding for the project could cost up to $200 million.
Despite that high cost, the nearly 40 other sponsors of the bill estimate that 200,000 families nationwide could be helped in the first five years after the bill’s passage.
This bill is an excellent idea, created to level the playing field for families of many different backgrounds and give them equal chances to become homeowners.
Rogers says that the bill will help the high percentages of minorities in large metropolitan areas like Detroit own their own homes and “break out of the cycle” of subsidized housing arrangements.
He and the bill’s other sponsors hope to have the bill on the president’s desk for consideration by October.
Although the American Dream Down Payment Fund is presently just a bill, it does have enormous potential to become a law. Hopefully, it can rise above the levels of bureaucracy to help countless American families.
Some critics may argue that if it is put in place, the bill would aid only those in the lower middle class and not those in the lowest income brackets that it is aimed to help in the first place.
This may be a concern, but it is not well-grounded. Other programs still will be in place to help those in the lowest classes. Nothing will be taken away; this is just one possible solution for the ever increasing problems of rising housing costs and disproportionate numbers of families without adequate housing.
A bill like this can only help more disadvantaged people, not hurt them.
Like its title suggests, the majority of American families have dreams of owning their own homes, and for those without resources to achieve this, this bill will bring them closer to reaching that ideal goal.
If government officials realize the benefits this bill will give families, the American dream will become a reality for many more people.
