Former U.S. Sen. Scott Brown, a Donald Trump supporter who is at the Republican National Convention this week as a Fox News contributor, has another goal for his time in Cleveland – making housing a top policy issue for the country.
Brown was on the media circuit Tuesday, appearing on television and radio where he discussed Trump, the controversy surrounding Melania Trump’s Monday night speech, and why he thinks the “socialist agenda” adopted by Hillary Clinton would be bad for the country.
But on Tuesday afternoon, Brown also co-hosted a benefit concert to support Make Room, a nonprofit focused on rental affordability. The concert and barbecue at a bar on banks of the Cuyahoga River just west of downtown Cleveland featured performances by country music’s Big & Rich and Brown’s daughter Ayla Brown.
Many in the Massachusetts delegation to the RNC planned to attend, though tickets were a hot commodity at Tuesday morning’s delegation breakfast as top MassGOP officials scrambled to try to secure more invites. The MassGOP also tried to lock Brown in as a speaker at one of their breakfast events this week, but were unable to do so. Brown did speak to the New Hampshire delegation Tuesday morning, a state he moved to after losing his 2012 re-election campaign to Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
Leading into the convention, Brown wrote an op-ed for Fox Business in which he called housing problems “some of the most important challenges facing America.”
According to Brown, 21.3 million renter households spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing, of which 11.4 million dedicate more than half of their earnings to rent and utilities.
“For countless numbers of families across the country, the first day of each month has become a moment of truth: Can we afford to pay the rent? This often means having far less to spend on other life essentials like nutritious food, transportation to a job, clothing for children, and necessary medical care,” Brown wrote.
He recalled how he lived in 17 different homes by the time he turned 18, and money was always a problem for his family. He encouraged local land use and zoning policies to encourage greater housing density with more affordable units and increased support at the federal level for the Low-Income Housing Credit program, which supports private investment in housing production and preservation.
“A greater supply of these homes should relieve some of the pressure on rents,” Brown wrote.
