North Carolina affordable housing advocates are preparing for the worst but hoping for the best as the new Trump administration takes shape.
Stephanie Watkins-Cruz (Photo: NC Housing Coalition)Advocates say affordable housing groups will take a defensive posture in the coming months with a focus on protecting existing programs and policies designed to keep families in homes and provide access to affordable housing.
“That’s going to be a big part of the work,” said Stephanie Watkins-Cruz, director of housing policy for the N.C. Housing Coalition.
Watkins-Cruz said the mood is mixed among advocates as they look ahead to the next four years.
“Part of the mood is fear, fear of how this will impact our work, and particularly when you know there’s generally agreed upon best practices [about how to address housing affordability],” Watkins-Cruz said. “We’re trying to figure out how to still build relationships and have dialog, so there’s this fear for folks you love, for the field itself, for communities and kind of how we will adapt.”
If the first few days of Donald Trump’s presidency is an indication, big changes could be on the way for federal agencies such as the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which provides housing assistance and enforces fair housing laws.
President Donald Trump signs executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House on Jan. 20, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)Trump talked about doing way with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which he contends has done a poor job of handling the Hurricane Helene disaster. Trump signaled that his administration would look into turning over disaster recovery to the states, which he believes is better equipped to handle them.
Nationally, Trump’s executive order scrubbing diversity and equity programs policies from the federal government has raised concern among affordable housing and homeless advocates.
Turner recently testified before the U.S. Senate Committee Banking Committee and Urban Affairs as part of his confirmation process. Advocates were not encouraged.
Renee Willis (Photo: National Low-Income Housing Coalition)“He [Turner] refused to commit to protecting federal housing and homelessness programs from significant spending cuts,” Renee M. Willis, interim president of the National Low-Income Housing Coalition, said in a statement to housing advocates and supporters.
Willis said Turner’s advocacy for increasing the role of private equity in the rental market, “despite its track record of raising rents, imposing junk fees, evicting tenants, and failing to maintain properties in good condition” is also cause for concern.
“And he [Turner] opposed HUD’s efforts to advance equity, blamed immigrants for our nation’s homelessness crisis, and endorsed new barriers to assistance, including work requirements,” Willis said.
She predicted that many of the policies Trump pursued during his first term will resurface, including budget cuts that would have resulted in an estimated 200,000 households losing assistance to stay in their homes.
“Furthermore, the Trump administration proposed to charge higher rents and impose work requirements and time limits on low-income seniors, people with disabilities, families with children, and other people living in HUD housing,” Willis said.
Several solutions endorsed by NLIHC to help address the nation’s housing crisis are ones that Turner said he supports. Those solutions include:
Increasing the supply of affordable housing by encouraging states and communities to reform zoning and land use restrictions that drive up housing costs Ensuring federal disaster recovery efforts reach households and communities more quickly by permanently authorizing HUD’s long-term recovery program Improving federal housing programs, including Housing Choice Vouchers, to make it easier for families to access affordable housing Reducing homelessness among veterans and other populations by focusing on successful, proven solutions and working collaboratively with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Encouraging workforce development opportunities in low-income communities Vigorously enforcing fair housing laws.Politico reported that Turner’s nomination was advanced on a party line vote in the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday. Democrats voiced concern that the nominees’ FBI background check has yet to be completed.
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