Renters Tax Credit

I agree with Willie Dickerson (Letters, “A New Peace,” 8/1) when he commented, “peace begins when hunger ends.” Our food banks are certainly in demand, and poverty abounds. 

Twenty-three percent of renter households in Oregon have incomes that are at or below the poverty guideline or 30 percent of their area median income.

Did you know that in the late 1970s, the U.S. had even a modest surplus of affordable housing units for the lowest-income people? Adjusted for inflation, the federal budget for housing assistance programs 50 years ago was nearly three times more than it is today, in spite of significant growth in the number of low-income renters eligible for housing assistance.

But President Trump wants to cut housing assistance even more. 

In Trump’s 2017 tax code, $200 billion in tax cuts now goes to the top 20 percent of households. We need to support struggling working families.

We need a renter’s tax credit, where low-income renters pay 30 percent of their income for rent. 

Donna Schindler Munro

Bremerton, Wash.