Trump and Harris have sharply different approaches to housing

Marcus Baram
| Capital and main

This article was prepared by a non-profit journalistic publication Capital and main and republished here with permission

Housing may not dominate the rhetoric in this year’s presidential race, but it is a top priority for Americans.

At least 80% of voters Those surveyed by real estate company Redfin said housing affordability was critical to their vote. The affordable housing crisis is especially acute for low-wage workers—there is not a single state, metro area or county in the country where a renter working full-time for minimum wage could afford to rent a modest two-bedroom home, according to data National Low Income Housing Coalition.

In recent weeks, Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, have begun to outline plans to address America’s housing problems. As with most issues, the candidates’ proposals vary widely, as do their track records.

Shortly after Harris replaced President Joe Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket, he proposed $25,000 in down payment assistance for first-time homebuyers and launched a program $40 billion local innovation fund “to provide state and local governments, as well as private developers and homebuilding companies, with the funds to invest in innovative strategies to expand housing supply.”

Trump, by contrast, has promised to open up vast swaths of federal land to large-scale housing development. telling the Economic Club of New York that “these zones will have ultra-low taxes and ultra-low regulations—one of the greatest job creation programs for small businesses.”

Harris calls the crisis a supply problem, while Trump often frames it as a demand problem, blaming the housing shortage on immigrants.

IN rally in downtown Tucson, ArizonaIn September, the Republican candidate said migrants disproportionately live in low-income rental properties, that he would force rental companies offering subsidized housing to require proof of citizenship from tenants and that he would ban mortgages for immigrants living in the U.S. without legal permissions.

The issue also came up during the vice presidential debate, when Republican nominee Sen. J.D. Vance argued that immigrants had raised housing costs. reduces construction workforce and actually leads to higher housing prices.

Trump’s housing record and Project 2025

In his first term, Trump proposed sweeping cuts to federal affordable housing programs and “undermined efforts to advance racial equality and reverse the nation’s legacy of housing discrimination,” said Will Fisher, senior director of housing policy at the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. In fiscal year 2020, Trump proposed cutting the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s budget. for $9.6 billion.which is 18% lower than the previous level. Congress rejected this reduction and increased agency budget by 5.1%.

“Affordable housing received less attention during Trump’s first term than during the Biden administration,” said Robert Silverman, a professor in the department of city and regional planning at the School of Architecture and Planning at the University at Buffalo. “Rents were rising at a rate faster than inflation, and new construction of affordable housing was slowing.”

Some of the housing proposals outlined in Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s policy initiative, and Trump’s second term plan reflect some of the key actions Trump took during his first term. Ben Carson, Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development under Trump, wrote HUD Proposals in the Heritage Projectalthough the Trump campaign tried to distance itself from Project 2025.

In his 2020 and 2021 budgets, Trump proposed liquidation of the Housing Trust Fundwhich provides grants to states to preserve and build affordable homes for low-income families. But the fund was saved by Congress and supported by the Biden administration. Another step towards completing the program is the goal of Project 2025.

In his first term, Trump ended The Affirmatively Advancing Fair Housing Rule, which required HUD and states, counties, and cities to take meaningful action to end decades of housing discrimination. Biden restored the regulation shortly after taking office in 2021. Re-terminating the rule is one of the recommendations of Project 2025.

Trump’s 2020 HUD extended using work requirements to obtain public housing benefits. During Biden’s first year in office and in the midst of a pandemic, the agency chose to maintain requirements but did not expand them, saying the program didn’t consider “Economic Realities and Current Needs of Low-Income Families.” In “Project 2025” Carson recommended long-term reforms to rental assistance programs, such as provisions that “seek to tighten employment requirements” and “limit the period during which households are eligible for housing benefits.”

“We have a really good idea of what kind of policies (Trump) will pursue, and they are generally ones that will worsen the housing crisis or increase the risk of homelessness in communities,” Sarah Saadian, vice president of the community organization. policy of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, Capital & Main reported.

A Trump campaign spokesman did not respond to requests for comment.

Harris’ housing record as California Attorney General and Senator

Saadian said she sees Harris’ housing proposals as promising, such as curbing rent increases by corporate landlords and combating algorithmic price fixing that has been shown to harm renters. But Saadian added that the vice president needs to craft housing policies that address the needs of more Americans.

“Those are good things, but most of the solutions she offers are really aimed at middle- and high-income renters,” Saadian said. “We’d like to see many more proposals from her to help renters with the greatest needs—things like universal rental assistance or a renter tax credit, or building more housing affordable for the lowest-income families.”

Many apartments built using low-income housing tax credits are actually “unaffordable for the people who need housing most,” she added.

Some experts argue that Harris’ down payment proposal for first-time homeowners may not be as effective as promised because it will likely be narrowed to a subset of buyers that must pass through Congress and is expected to will greatly benefit merchants and especially banks “because they will be able to make more loans,” Silverman said.

As California attorney general and U.S. senator, Harris often focused on housing issues. She developed and helped pass California Homeowner’s Bill of Rightswhich was passed in 2013 to protect homeowners from unfair foreclosure practices. A year earlier, it had joined other states in negotiations on $18 Billion Claims Settlement on behalf of those who have lost their homes due to fraud or wrongful foreclosure.

But Harris has come under fire for rejecting the recommendation of his staff to hold accountable a bank that has foreclosed on tens of thousands of homeowners in the state and faces allegations that it withheld an internal report on the matter.

Harris’ campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

At the federal level, as a U.S. Senator in 2018, she introduced Rent lawwhich would provide tax breaks to renters who earn less than $100,000. The bill never came to a vote in the Senate.

While Harris and Trump agree that the country is facing a housing crisis, they disagree on most aspects of solving the crisis. “You have two candidates with very different views on housing, which could have multi-generational implications,” Saadian said.