Workers Face Rising Costs as Affordability Plans Spread

The Seattle Social Housing Developer bought a 150-unit apartment complex with public funds as households across the United States face rising costs for housing, food, health care and utilities. Funded by a 5% tax on employers paying individual workers more than $1 million annually, the authority says it will keep its buildings publicly owned and rents affordable. The proposals in “26 Ideas for Solving the Affordability Crisis” range from public housing and drug-price programs to tax deductions, tariff changes and ticket-price limits.

Who Pays for the Crisis

Seattle’s Elara complex, built in 2018, now belongs to the public authority. Rents run from $665 for a low-income tenant in a studio to $3,767 for a two-bedroom apartment at market rates. The authority doesn’t use income tests; residents can stay as their earnings change. It plans to devote half of its new construction portfolio to family-sized homes, including two-, three- and some four-bedroom units.

Tiffani McCoy, Seattle Social Housing Developer’s interim CEO and campaign manager for the initiatives, said traditional public housing restricted tenants by income and often lacked enough operating and maintenance subsidies to cover upkeep. The authority aims to place more housing under public ownership and shield buildings from market speculation. It bought an existing property first because new construction takes a long time, and pressure to deliver was mounting.

The federal government’s previous year’s One Big Beautiful Bill cut food aid and subsidized health care as costs rose. During a government shutdown the previous year, the government cut off SNAP benefits to millions, sending families and government workers to food banks. Food banks reported demand beyond what they saw during the Covid-19 pandemic. “We’re seeing lots of folks who have never struggled before and never anticipated to be standing in line at a food pantry,” said Claire Neal, CEO of MANNA FoodBank in western North Carolina.

Rep. Blake Moore, a Utah Republican who launched the Congressional Philanthropy Caucus, said, “There is a gap with what the government can do. Our welfare programs are not going to solve everything. They never will.” The law that reduced social-safety-net spending also extended a charity-specific deduction for taxpayers and corporations. Rebeckah Freeman Adcock, Feeding America’s top lobbyist, said philanthropic groups “can’t treat government relations like a ‘nice to have.’”

Relief and Its Limits

A proposal from Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, Rep. Jared Moskowitz and Rep. Mike Lawler would cap federal student loan interest rates at 2%, versus roughly 6.5% to 9% for many borrowers. Luna said borrowers can spend 15 to 20 years paying back interest well above what they initially borrowed. “We can control those rates, so why wouldn’t we?” she said.

Sen. Cory Booker proposed more than doubling the standard deduction to eliminate federal income taxes for most married couples earning up to $75,000 and individuals earning half that. The Yale Budget Lab and Wharton Budget Model found overall revenue would still fall, despite proposed higher taxes on the wealthiest. Sen. Raphael Warnock proposed a refundable credit for low- and middle-income renters whose rent exceeds 30% of income; similar proposals in state legislatures hadn’t become law.

California’s CalRx program uses the state’s purchasing power to arrange lower-cost medicines through manufacturers. Since the beginning of 2026, a five-pack of state-branded long-acting insulin pens has been available for $55; the state says those pens otherwise retail for $89 to $411. Insulin is already capped at $35 per month for many people. Geoffrey Joyce, a senior scholar at USC Shaeffer, called CalRx “admirable in its intent, but only a small part of the market will benefit.”

The State, Prices and Public Ownership

Electric and gas utilities requested $18.6 billion in rate increases through the second quarter of the year, according to consumer advocacy group PowerLines. Utility commissioners set retail rates and oversee utility spending, including infrastructure for the AI boom. Indiana GOP Gov. Mike Braun demoted and later fired a senior Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission official after commissioners approved a $71 million electric-rate increase; the state later reached a settlement with the official over the firing.

The administration has exempted some goods from tariffs after Republican lawmakers and industries applied pressure. An analysis by the center-right American Action Forum found the share of U.S. imports exempted from tariffs rose from about 30% under the original “Liberation Day” duties to roughly two-thirds under tariffs imposed in July over forced-labor concerns. In August, the administration temporarily lifted tariffs on 300,000 metric tons of imports as ground beef prices hit record highs.

State and federal officials have also taken action on proposals to limit ticket resale prices. A Massachusetts bill would cap resale prices at 110% of face value, limit fees and surcharges, and ban speculative ticket sales. California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law banning ghost tickets; sellers who fail to supply a sold ticket face liability for twice its cost plus buyers’ related expenses. The Ticket Policy Forum, which represents resale platforms including SeatGeek and StubHub, sued to block the D.C. Council’s RESALE Act, which caps secondary-market prices at 120% of face value and bans ghost ticketing and surveillance pricing.

Remote work has returned to affordability debates as commuting costs, car prices and gas prices rise. National Treasury Employees Union President Doreen Greenwald told the Office of Personnel Management that removing telework programs added to federal employees’ affordability crisis. She said telework reduces government leasing and energy costs and saves employees time and commuting expenses. Trump ordered executive-branch employees back to offices after his inauguration; the IRS, National Park Service, USDA and EPA have faced arbitration over claims that return-to-office orders violated collective bargaining agreements.