Forward is Affordable.

We need to do a lot on Housing reform, to start we should:

• Rent cannot increase more than 2% a year (this applies to the unit, not just the tenant.)

• Rent cannot increase more than $50 more than the previous tenant paid.

• Set rent maximums.

• Landlords must give a minimum of 120 written days notice to move when they do not wish to rent any longer. At the end of the lease if no notice is given and the tenant wishes to remain in the unit, the original terms of the lease will renew for another year automatically. 

• Creation of Rental Security accounts. Special high yield savings accounts that renters can use to hold security deposits, Accounts can be used to satisfy security deposit requirements when moving into a new unit. Landlords would not have access to the accounts, and must make proactive declarations of intent to recoup damages in order to be paid. And would have 48 hours after the tenant moved out to contest the condition of the unit. Any complaints after this time must be made in court. Minimum of $500.00 must be kept in the account for the first year. 

• Tenants shall have the right to garden and grow food. Any permanent alterations will need to be cleared by the owner prior to the change.  Landlords cannot restrict tenants from growing their own food. 

• Residents and their guests cannot be towed from their property without their written or recorded permission; unless there is an emergency or the locality has issued a removal order. 

• Home ownership Association reform. Like all non-governmental bodies, HOA’s seem to have power that comes from nowhere. They have too much control over our lives even if we are not home owners. Reform is necessary to reduce their role in unnecessarily increasing rent, reducing options and limiting housing stock.

• Repeal the Faircloth amendment to the Quality Housing and Work Responsibility Act of 1998(QHWRA) which limits the number of affordable housing units to an arbitrary number decided in 1999. This drastically reduces the number of public housing units available.

• Get rid of application fees

• Ban fines, fees, or additional costs related to parking.

• Perhaps Donald Trump's one great idea, though as always he is vague on the details. I believe a permanent ceiling of 10% for interest rates would drastically reduce individual debt. 

• All interests should be forgiven after one year of the original principal being satisfied. 

• Public student loans should have their interest rates reduced to 0%, private student loans should be capped at 5%

• Contracts should reasonably do what all parties believe they are agreeing on. Music deals should have artist writing songs in exchange for money. Movie stars should reasonably expect to be paid when a movie makes millions of dollars. Car insurance should kick in if your car is damaged. Yet, that is not the reality we live in. We need contract reform in order to protect all parties and reduce the backlog in court cases. 

• Non disclosure agreements must expire after a year, unless a court order is sought to extend the time or it is a reasonable responsibility of the job. No one is owed your silence in perpetuity. 

• Non compete clauses should expire six months after leaving an employer.

• Increase the benefit amount for SNAP

• End midyear reviews for SNAP, and add a three month grace period for changes to income before kicking enrollees off of benefits. 

• Universal free lunch/ breakfast in public schools.

• End subsidies for sugar, corn, etc. And subsidize local fruits and veggies instead. 

• Changing the federal definition of poverty from the official poverty line to the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) to better account for real poverty numbers and increase those who are eligible for programs like SNAP.

• Adjust USDA’s Thrifty Food plan to bring it into the 21st century and aim to nourish people not merely bring them from the brink of starvation as it was designed to do during the Great Depression. (Liberal Food plans are a better reflection of what people should eat to thrive).

• Banks cannot discriminate based on jobs. We should protect both the cannabis shop owner and the Only Fans creator from having a bank freeze their assets or refuse to hold their cash. 

• Increase penalties for race, and gender based discrimination. 

We are all tired of corporations stealing our data and making billions off of it, shouldn't we get a cut?

Our data should be our data, and we should benefit financially from it. Whenever a corporation sells off our data we should get a portion of the proceeds. We should also limit how much of our data corporations have access to.

The Trump Administration has made it a priority to destroy the education department. We need to do everything we can to restore it as quickly as possible. After we do that we should focus on the following:

• Universal Pre-K

• Increasing the base pay of teachers, and setting a minimum wage of $45,000 for K-12 Public school teachers.

• Wiping out student loan debt.

• Making community colleges and public universities tuition free.

• Subsidizing student housing to drastically reduces the price.

• Reduce barriers for students to receive federal aid programs such as SNAP, Medicaid, and Childcare.

• Regulate and limit fees college assess on students.

• Set maximum limits for the cost of textbooks and required materials.

• Debt free graduate programs for under-filled positions (Doctors, Public Defenders, Judges, engineers, Professors, Ecologists, etc.)

• Increase the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour.

• Get rid of the tipped minimum wage. 

• Require incarcerated people be paid the normal minimum wage.

• Set up better guidelines for minimum wage’s industry by industry so workers can easily see what an employer should be paying at a minimum.

• Remove the requirement that people pay in cash to collect their towed vehicles. 

• Limit the maximum amount a person can be charged to $75 per 24 hours.

• Limit situations and places cars can be towed from without their owners permission. 

• Require loading and unloading process to be videotaped. 

• Ban tow truck drivers from going into the vehicle without the owners recorded permission. 

• Lower the threshold for proving damages, place burden of proof for proving that the vehicle was handled correctly on the towing company.

• Require tow truck company to pay for damages to vehicles damaged in transit. while loading or unloading, or while in the lot.

• Give access to the video recordings to owner of vehicle.

• Limit the amount a consumer can be charged for a parking ticket to $20 total (unless blocking fire lane or parked in Disabled parking spot)

• Ban parking tickets in states of emergency, and dangerous weather.

• Require large signs where red light and speed camera’s are placed and require cities to manage programs locally - not through a third party out of state.

• Make the process for disputing parking tickets streamlined, no more court appearances required to dispute.