What Biden Could Mean for Trinidad

As I post this it looks like Joe Biden will become the next president in January. Earlier this week, I sat down to look at how Biden's plans could affect life for residents in Trinidad. Obviously, if the Senate remains controlled by Republicans, then a lot of Biden's plans will limited by that. But still, how Biden wants to change the lives of the people in our neighborhood is an interesting thought experiment and it could be interesting to revisit this in four years and see what was actually enacted and if it made a difference. I'm sure this isn't everything, but here are some of the biggest things Biden wants to change:

Health care: At the start of Covid, about 21,000 people in D.C. lacked health insurance (including an estimated 450 in Trinidad according to 2018 census data), one of the lowest uninsured rates in the nation. But more than 153,000 Washingtonians have filed for unemployment since March, and many of those workers likely had insurance through their jobs and lost it. (Open enrollment for Obamacare just started again.) Biden wants to keep Obamacare and add a government-run public option in addition to the private insurance options currently offered. There’s a lot more to it, but the goal is to lower the cost of insurance and prescription medicine and cover more people.

Housing: Biden wants to pass laws protecting renters and homeowners from being taken advantage of. He also wants to fight evictions and exclusionary zoning, which limits the kinds of housing that can be built in different neighborhoods. Over half of Trinidad residents rent, so a lot of these measures could be directly applicable. D.C. has received community block grants like the ones Biden favors expanding. According to D.C.’s Department of Housing and Community Development, “Examples of CDBG-funded activities include housing rehabilitation and homebuyer loans, housing development financing, small business technical assistance, and neighborhood revitalization projects.” There’s much more, from a new renter’s tax credit to support for public housing and a tax credit for first-time home buyers. Biden also wants to fight credit agency discrimination.

Poverty: Vox says that several of Biden’s plans have the potential to lift 20 million Americans out of poverty and wipe out about three quarters of child poverty. The details are complicated, but 16% of Trinidad residents and 29% of children under 18 in Trinidad’s lower census tract live below the poverty line. If Biden can lift hundreds of Trinidadians out of poverty, that would be huge.

Transportation: Biden wants to invest in public transportation, and that likely means more federal funding for MetroRail and MetroBus, which are badly weakened by Covid. WMATA is planning to make significant, system-wide cuts that could make temporary service reductions permanent. (In the meantime don't forget to add your voice to how we should improve transit locally.)

And notably, some of Biden’s agenda items are already in effect here...

• Minimum wage: Joe Biden wants a national $15 an hour minimum wage. As of July, D.C.’s minimum wage is $15 an hour, and it’s indexed to inflation, so it may continue to rise.
• Preschool: Biden wants universal preschool for three and four year olds, which D.C. has offered for about a decade, and the results have been good.
• Homelessness: Biden wants to support Housing First initiatives, which have been implemented unevenly in D.C., but local groups like Pathways to Housing DC have been in place for years and would be well positioned to use more federal funding to reduce homelessness here.
• Guns: Biden has all sorts of restrictions in mind for firearm sales and ownership, but guns are still pretty restricted here. Thanks to the Supreme Court, about 4,000 people now have a permit to carry in D.C., and most of them live outside the city. The problem here continues to be illegal firearms. 
• Climate change: D.C. already has sustainability goals and federal mandates and funding would only help advancing those goals. Some of the other priorities, like public transportation, could reduce pollution and other health hazards.

One more thing — Statehood. While not explicitly part of Biden’s platform, he supported the idea in 2015 and it now seems more plausible, but it's probably a long shot without Democrats controlling the Senate. In addition to having a voting representative in congress, Statehood would be an opportunity to fix how D.C. governs itself.

FWIW: I'm just doing this by myself on the side, with no editor, so it's possible I've made some logical or factual mistakes. Please let me know if you notice anything and I'll do my best to fix it. 

Image from U.S. Embassy Jerusalem, used through a Creative Commons license.