Affordable Housing Act

Here's a proposal for a federal program to greatly reduce homelessness in America.

1. All homeless Americans must rent a home from a private company.
2. Those without housing who do not rent a home must pay a fine to the government. Unless their income is extremely low and then they may continue being homeless with no penalty.
3. All companies with 50 employers must provide rental options to their employees who work 30 or more hours per week.
4. The rents of poorer people will be subsidized by those with larger incomes, and all will pay fees to cover the program's overhead.
5. The government will set minimum standards for private housing. All housing must include, among other things, wheelchair access to all levels and handicap-friendly bathrooms.
6. Rental companies cannot refuse to rent to anyone because of their criminal record, credit history, or any other pre-existing condition.
7. Under the program rents may rise drastically from one year to the next. A family's rent may double or even more in a year.
8. The rent does not actually permit a person to use their home. They must pay a usage fee, usually well into the thousands of dollars. If they have a home under the program, but are unable to pay the usage fee to get into the home, they will still be considered as people who were provided homes under the program. Likewise those who previously afforded usage fees but can no longer do so because of soaring rents will not be counted as having lost housing.
9. If you have a home and you like your home, you can keep your home at the same rent. (Except that no you can't.)

We should pass the Affordable Housing Act in an overnight session during a holiday, and if our opponents try to repeal the legislation, we'll cite the numbers of those no longer considered to be homeless as our sole justification for keeping it in place, and call them greedy and heartless for wanting to do so. Who's with me?