Last week, former President Donald Trump was elected the 47th President of the United States. Based on President Trump’s track record and campaign platform, his election to the presidency presents serious challenges to impacted people, housing advocates, and federal policymakers seeking to enact meaningful solutions to our nation’s affordable housing and homelessness crisis.
“As we did during his last administration, the National Low Income Housing Coalition will mobilize our members and partners across the nation and work closely with our congressional champions to oppose any cruel or harmful measure offered by President-elect Trump and his administration that would undermine housing justice, exacerbate racial and social inequities, and worsen America’s housing and homelessness crisis,” stated NLIHC President and CEO Diane Yentel. “NLIHC and our partners successfully defeated many extreme policies during President Trump’s first term, and we are prepared to do the same now. NLIHC will also – as it always has done – look for potential areas of agreement with all policymakers to advance solutions that protect tenants, alleviate the housing crisis, and advance racial and housing justice.”
During his past presidency, Donald Trump and his administration proposed several measures that would have significantly worsened America’s housing and homelessness crisis. Each of his four annual budget requests proposed to slash federal investments in affordable housing. His administration proposed raising rents on households living in HUD-assisted housing and imposing rigid work requirements. He attempted to force mixed-status immigrant households to break up or face eviction.
His administration also sought to undermine proven solutions to homelessness and to allow shelters to discriminate against transgender individuals experiencing homelessness. President Trump undermined the Fair Housing Act by suspending regulations and tools used to help states and communities meet their legal obligations to undo the harms caused by racial segregation, housing discrimination, and disinvestment.
NLIHC led national efforts to oppose each of these harmful proposals, and, in almost all cases, won. Congress, on a bipartisan basis, rejected President Trump’s proposals to exacerbate the housing crisis.
Despite these harmful actions, President Trump also signed into law billions of dollars to address urgent health and housing needs during the pandemic, including $25 billion for emergency rental assistance, and implemented a national eviction ban to help keep families stably housed. Both were top priorities for NLIHC and our partners.
President-elect Trump’s 2024 campaign agenda includes proposals to open up federal land for housing construction and reduce regulations that drive up housing costs – both of which policies NLIHC may support. The agenda also proposes, however, to deport millions of undocumented people, which would harm millions of families and the country. This proposal is not a solution to America’s housing crisis, and NLIHC will strongly oppose and work with partners to prevent it.
“The high cost of housing was a top election issue for voters in 2024, and voters have made clear that they want policymakers at all levels of government to advance solutions,” stated Yentel. “NLIHC urges President-elect Trump to work with policymakers on both sides of the aisle to enact meaningful affordable housing solutions and to leave behind the divisive, hateful, and harmful rhetoric too often used during his campaign.”