Alleviating Poverty

For struggling Texans to reach their full potential, Texas must immediately take action to eliminate poverty traps. If the state continues to penalize people for earning more money (through increased taxation), they will be hesitant to earn more money. As a result, poverty holds them hostage and dependency on welfare is perpetuated.

Here are a few steps that can be taken to eliminate poverty traps:

• Raise any cap that restricts how much welfare recipients can have in their personal bank account before losing benefits.
• Create an insurance product to help people gradually depend less on welfare as they increase their income.
• Remove restrictions on non-profits that help the poor.
• Decriminalize homelessness.

If local, municipal laws make this process more difficult, then a spotlight will be brought on the issue and I woll work to apply pressure to fix the problem.

Affordable Housing

In some areas, housing is much too expensive. This is often (but not always) the result of inept municipal government. This is incredibly true in the DFW metroplex where the primary fault lies with expensive housing which is generally controlled by local community boards. Unelected officials who have been appointed at the whim of leadership face little to no accountability for failing their constituents. As representative, I will pressure local areas to convert these positions into elected offices. This will allow the public to hold the individuals serving in these roles accountable for their shortcomings. Additionally, I will create awareness regarding the local policies, generated by community boards, that ultimately led to significant increases in housing prices.