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To Break Trump, Democrats Need To Break the Housing Status Quo
A perspective from Matt Hughes
Voters keep sending the same message: This isn’t working. Across the United States – and throughout many Western democracies – there’s a rising sense that the political establishment is out of touch with the realities people face. That’s why every federal election since 2006, except 2012, has been a change election. Voters are tired of gridlock, rising costs, and a government that seems more responsive to interest groups than to ordinary citizens.
Democrats can’t afford to ignore this discontent. To defeat Donald Trump and deliver real results, they need to do more than oppose – they need to offer a credible alternative to business as usual. That means breaking with the status quo and becoming the party of change.
This was the premise behind the inaugural session of the Progressive Policy Institute’s (PPI) New Directions for Democrats summit, held in mid-April, which I attended in Denver, Colorado. The question on the table: how can Democrats get back into a winning position and turn progressive policy ideas into governing reality?
Last year’s election was without a doubt a choice between the status quo and change, especially with Democrats centering issues like protecting institutions, upholding the rule of law, and securing democracy. The problem is that by making these so front and center the party became the party of the status quo, which voters did not want. In order to break this reputation, Democrats have to abandon the status quo, including at the state and local level.
Nowhere is the disconnect between voters and government more tangible than in housing – one of the most urgent, visible, and local issues facing families nationwide. Across the country, families are struggling to afford homes, and rents are skyrocketing in cities of all sizes and in all regions. For Democrats, the housing crisis is a policy problem and a political one. Young voters and working families are losing faith that Democrats will deliver on the basics, like affordable places to live. As Tip O’Neill once said, “All politics is local.” The picture many voters see when deciding how to vote federally are the issues on the ground and they are looking to Washington to fix problems that really can only be solved in large part locally.
A lack of housing supply, restrictive zoning laws, and outdated land-use policies are driving prices higher and making home ownership unattainable for many Americans. We need to flip the script by becoming the party that is not only fighting for housing affordability but also fundamentally changing how we approach it. Housing attainability should be the goal.
I’m a Commissioner of my hometown of Hillsborough and continue to have great anxiety regarding our county’s recent property tax revaluation. Through this revaluation many homeowners saw their property values jump well over 100%. And this reflects a much larger issue, which is a housing crisis caused by inadequate supply and restrictive policies. Communities like mine have been slow to embrace the bold changes needed to expand housing options. We pretend the laws of supply and demand don’t apply, but they do, and the consequence is crushingly high prices.
We can learn from cities that are getting it right. Austin, Texas, once one of the most expensive places to live in the state, has seen 19 straight months of rent decreases thanks to a boom in housing development. Similarly, in Durham, North Carolina, rents have dropped nearly 12% from last year. These examples prove that increasing the housing supply works.
However, many Democratic-led communities have held onto zoning and development rules that slow progress. The mentality of preserving nostalgia, even when it leads to economic hardship for working families, must change. Democrats should be the party that embraces smart growth, flexible land use policies, and streamlined building processes.
For example, bipartisan bills like North Carolina’s SB499 (Allow Housing Near Jobs) and HB369 (Parking Lot Reform and Modernization Act) demonstrate a willingness to rethink outdated approaches. These bills propose allowing housing development in commercial areas and eliminating parking minimums statewide. Democrats should embrace and champion such policies to increase housing supply, reduce costs, and make cities more livable.
To break away from the status quo, Democrats must also challenge the NIMBY mentality that protects the interests of a few while pricing out many. Policies that favor property value preservation over housing equity must be questioned. If we continue to prioritize nostalgia over progress, we will keep losing ground to rising costs, displacement, and ultimately being punished at the ballot box.
Ultimately, Democrats need to make housing reform a key part of our national platform and explain how we’re going to expand economic security. By doing so, we can address both the economic needs of our communities and the systemic inequalities that have left too many without a path to home ownership or affordable rents. If we can be bold on this issue, we will demonstrate that Democrats are not just disrupting the status quo — we are leading the charge to build a future where everyone has a place to call home. And I think the voters will reward them for it.
Matt Hughes has been a Commissioner for the Town of Hillsborough since 2018, is a member of the Democratic National Committee, and is a member of the Steering Committee for the Center for New Liberalism.
“Viewpoints” on Chapelboro is a recurring series of community-submitted opinion columns. All thoughts, ideas, opinions and expressions in this series are those of the author, and do not reflect the work or reporting of 97.9 The Hill and Chapelboro.com.
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