(Radio Iowa) — California billionaire and Democratic presidential candidate Tom Steyer just wrapped up a two-day campaign swing through north-central Iowa, touting plans to boost the amount of affordable housing in America.  “So many things depend on where you put your head down at night,” Steyer says, “and I think that solving and addressing this housing shortage and this housing crisis is something that’s critical in terms of addressing inequality around the country.”

Steyer says the federal government should invest more than six-hundred-25 BILLION dollars ($625 billion) over ten years in existing housing programs — to create three-and-a-half million units of affordable housing. Steyer says an additional six-hundred BILLION ($600 billion) should be used to develop “climate-smart” housing in cities that’s affordable. Steyer says there’s no state in the US where a minimum-wage worker can afford a market-rate two-bedroom apartment. “Des Moines has gentrification problems like the gentrification problems across this country,” Steyer says. “I’ve been to Council Bluffs to see the flooding. I know that they are the issues about rebuilding houses and I know there is enough housing stock in rural America.”

Steyer says leaders at the local, state and federal level need to show leadership in addressing housing issues.  “We’re going to have to deal with our homelessness problem across the country explicitly,” he says. “We’re going to have to help people to the traditional American wealth generation through home ownership…because that has gotten to be very problematic and particularly in red-lined areas.”

Steyer made stops in Mason City and Osage on Sunday, and Charles City and Northwood on Monday.