ICYMI: Three Mayors from Vastly Different Cities, One Goal: Pass the Build Back Better Agenda

Yesterday, three mayors from vastly different cities, backgrounds, and political ideologies urged Congress in an op-ed to support and pass of President Biden's Build Back Better Agenda, calling the legislation "the generational investment our cities have been waiting for."

While acknowledging their differences – both with regard to politics and policy challenges – San Diego, CA Mayor Todd Gloria (D), Mesa, AZ Mayor John Giles (R), and Huntington, WV Mayor Steve Williams (D), all recognized the importance of passing legislation to help families in their communities.

The mayors outline the impact the President's proposal will have on working families: "The Build Back Better Actdoes this in a myriad of ways – by investing in universal pre-school the average American family would save $13,000 per year. By reducing health insurance premiums, 9 million people would save an average of $50 per month."

The Build Back Better Agenda's transformational investments will help put money back into the pockets of Americans and kickstart cities across the country as they emerge from the pandemic.

Read the full op-ed below:

The Build Back Better Act is a Winning Formula for America's Cities

[Mayor Todd Gloria, Mayor John Giles, Mayor Steve Williams, 10/22/21]

The cities of San Diego, Mesa, and Huntington don't have much in common. In fact, we are quite different. We respectively represent blue, purple, and red states; we are America's 8th, 34th, and 835th largest cities; and we all face a very different scale of policy challenges - but our commonality is that we all support the Build Back Better Act.

As mayors, we are the closest to the ground. We are responsible for the safety and wellbeing of our constituents. If the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us anything, it is that putting money back in the hands of working people coupled with adequate, affordable housing are how we strengthen our working-class communities.

Since 2016, homelessness has increased 5.6 percent nationally, with a little less than 600,000 of our neighbors unhoused at a given time, and we know that number is likely much higher. Nearly 18 million Americans are paying upwards of 50 percent of their incomes on housing costs. The Build Back Better Act'sproposed investments in housing and homelessness prevention will pay major dividends in our efforts to address a lack of supply, rising rents and home costs, and increasing homelessness.

In San Diego, more than 91,000 households are on a waiting list for a Housing Choice Voucher with an average wait time of more than 10 years. In Mesa, the cost of housing has skyrocketed in the last year, raising the median home price by 29 percent and rents rising by more than 16 percent since 2019. And in Huntington, more than half of the City's housing stock was built prior to 1950, resulting in 38 percent of its total housing stock needing repairs or rehabilitation.

Now, Congress has an opportunity to shift this paradigm by passing the Build Back Better Act.

The Build Back Better Act is the generational investment our cities have been waiting for. We have clearly laid out the issues our cities are facing in terms of housing affordability and homelessness, but we all know that these issues require more than just a direct investment in housing. It starts with the need for putting more money in the hands of working people.

The Build Back Better Act does this in a myriad of ways – by investing in universal pre-school the average American family would save $13,000 per year. By reducing health insurance premiums, 9 million people would save an average of $50 per month. And by providing two years of free community college the wages of high school graduates are projected to increase by nearly $6,000 per year.

To reinforce the positive impacts these investments can have on communities, one need only look to some of the strategic investments made in the American Rescue Plan. Investments in emergency rental assistance helped our communities keep hundreds of thousands of renters in their homes and off the streets. Increasing the Child Tax Credit from $2,000 per child to $3,000 per child for children over six and $3,600 for children under six provided 39 million households with a major tax cut. By raising the income threshold for Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) more than 17 million people are being lifted out of poverty.

We know there are those who believe we should take a strategic pause and reassess the Build Back Better Act. As mayors, however, we realize we simply cannot wait any longer. We see our residents paying higher rents with stagnant wages, the dream of homeownership slipping further out of reach for working families, and more of those who have fallen on hard times living on our streets. By lowering housing costs, reducing homelessness, and putting more money back in the pockets of working people the Build Back Better Act is a winning formula for America's cities.

The views from the cliffs of the Pacific Ocean, the deserts of the Southwest, and the rolling hills of Appalachia may look different, but on this issue, we all share the same view - Congress needs to pass the Build Back Better Act now.

Mayor Todd Gloria is the Democratic Mayor of San Diego, Calif.; Mayor John Giles is the Republican Mayor of Mesa, Ariz.; and Steve Williams is the Democratic Mayor of Huntington, W.V