To the editor:

I appreciated the letter from Sharon Gilpin “Housing crisis calls out for different solutions.”

She commented that “We need affordable housing ALL over the county” — indeed, we need affordable housing all over our country!

According to Harvard researchers, U.S. rents have risen by 61 percent since 1960, but renters’ median earnings have gone up 5 percent.

Under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, $200 billion in tax cuts goes to the top 20 percent of households. Yet Trump’s FY2020 tax proposal is to cut $1 trillion from education, affordable housing, nutrition assistance and the needs of working families over a 10-year period.

There are several similar renters’ tax credit proposals in Congress to help alleviate America’s housing crisis. The tax credit would serve as a cap on the amount of rent and utilities a low-income household would pay (around 30 percent of their income). And it would provide a tax credit for the balance above that up to local fair market value.

A renters’ tax credit is a strong step in the right direction.

DONNA MUNRO

Bremerton