Julian Castro on Welfare & Poverty Democratic Presidential Challenger (withdrawn); former HUD Secretary

Bring back LGBT non-discrimination policies for HUD housing

CASTRO: I'm very proud that during the two-and-a-half years that I was housing secretary that me and the people that worked at HUD, we had a role in expanding those protections. It is a shame what this administration has done to roll them back. And the comments that Secretary Carson, my successor, made a couple of weeks ago are shameful. As president, I would make sure not only that we appoint people, including members of the LGBTQ community, to the cabinet, to the White House staff, and other positions in the administration who are going to ensure that we expand equal opportunity, but we absolutely will strengthen protections in housing and employment and health care, in every other context for members of the LGBTQ community.

Construction funding & rent subsidies for affordable housing

ONE CANDIDATE HAS SIMILAR VIEWS: Cory Booker.

A few candidates have called for a two-pronged approach, combining rent relief with efforts to increase construction. Sen. Cory Booker's plan would give renters a refundable tax credit to cover the shortfall between 30 percent of their income and rent while directing $40 billion a year to the Housing Trust Fund to build and operate rental housing for low-income people.

Julian Castro, a former secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development in the Obama administration, would expand the Housing Voucher Program and create a tax credit for renters. To increase the supply of affordable housing, he would expand the Low Income Housing Tax Credit and boost funding for two trust funds to develop and improve public housing by $45 billion.

ConnectHome: Support affordable housing

In 2016, HUD launched a fund that provided $173 million in grants to create affordable housing. He also put in practice the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Rule, which required cities that receive federal money to examine potential biases in housing opportunities, per CNBC.

Lower energy consumption in HUD-assisted housing

Castro: Addressing the existential crisis of climate change requires bold and aggressive action. President Obama put forward important policies that were a major step forward for our country and the world. For example, at HUD [which Mr. Castro used to lead], we worked on efforts to lower energy consumption and increase renewable energy usage in HUD assisted housing. But we cannot afford to stop there. We need renewable energy and performance standards, resilient infrastructure with stricter codes for sustainability, and we need incentives for research and investment in cutting-edge technologies.

Q: Do you support a national renewable energy standard? If so, what would it be? If not, why not?

Castro: Yes. Lowering carbon emissions will require a national renewable energy standard that gradually increases until we achieve our emissions target by 2050.

Government can help needy families get back on their feet

ConnectHome: make HUD the Department of Opportunity