Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris is promising to build more housing as a centerpiece of efforts to combat the rising costs that are burdening American households and making home ownership unaffordable for many Americans.

Although Harris deliberately stayed away from some policy details in her presidential bid just a month ago, she has laid out detailed plans to boost new construction and reduce costs for renters and homebuyers, largely through tax breaks.

“We will end the housing crisis in America,” she said last week as she accepted her nomination as the Democratic presidential candidate.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump also promised during his campaign to reduce costs through tax breaks and fewer regulations. But during his campaign he defended local restrictions on housing construction that prevent the construction of many types of affordable housing.

According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in May, housing costs are voters’ second most important economic concern, after fears of rising prices and stagnant incomes.

Housing construction collapsed during the financial crisis of 2007-2009 and recovered only slowly in the years that followed. According to Moody’s Analytics, there is a 2.9 million housing unit shortage in the United States.

Pandemic-related shortages of building materials caused new home prices to soar, while rising interest rates made mortgages more expensive.

According to real estate company Zillow, home prices in the US have increased by 50 percent and rents by 35 percent over the past five years.

Harris’ housing plan could help her win votes in a campaign dominated by economic concerns, said Alyssa Cass, a Democratic strategist who said the issue is high on the agenda in focus groups.

“Anything that lowers housing costs is music to voters’ ears,” she said.

At a campaign rally in North Carolina on August 16, Harris called for building three million more housing units over four years, in addition to the roughly one million units the private sector builds annually, through a new tax break for developers building first-time home buyers and a $25,000 tax credit for those first-time buyers.

She also proposed creating a $40 billion fund to encourage local governments to create more affordable housing, simplify regulations and expand rental subsidies, among other things.

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a bipartisan watchdog group, estimates that these measures would cost at least $200 billion over 10 years.

If Harris is elected president, she may find it difficult to turn these policies into law, as similar proposals by President Joe Biden have failed in Congress.

Trump’s position is less clear. The Republican Party’s platform calls for increasing the home ownership rate through tax relief and the reduction of regulations, but does not specify any concrete goals.

However, Trump has also opposed proposals to loosen local zoning restrictions that prevent the construction of apartments, duplexes and other forms of affordable housing in neighborhoods reserved for single-family homes.

“I keep hearing that suburban women don’t like Trump,” he said last week at a campaign rally in Howell, Michigan. “I keep the suburbs safe. I’ve stopped high-rises for poor people from being built right next to their homes, and I’m keeping illegal immigrants out of the suburbs.”

Trump’s running mate, US Senator JD Vance, blamed immigrants for the housing shortage.

Jenny Schuetz, a housing expert at the nonpartisan Brookings Institution, said the comment amounted to a “not very subtle dog whistle” reminiscent of the racially motivated housing struggles of the 1970s, when white residents resisted efforts to integrate suburban areas.

“Trying to portray housing affordability as a social rather than an economic issue does nothing to actually address the problem,” she said.

During Trump’s presidency from 2017 to 2021, his housing secretary, Ben Carson, proposed loosening zoning rules but did nothing. He recently called for opposition to any efforts to loosen zoning rules for single-family homes under Project 2025, a conservative policy plan that the Trump campaign opposes.

Harris has not said whether she would push local governments to loosen zoning regulations, but she has been involved in a broader Biden administration initiative to encourage development.

In June, it announced $85 million in grants to 21 local governments to address “barriers to affordable housing,” including reforming land-use policies in some areas. The Biden administration plans to disburse another $100 million later this year.