The last 100 days have been—to make an incredible understatement—overwhelming. On every front, a radical administration has not only shifted the political orientation of the government, as is expected with a change of leadership, but departed from the underlying laws, norms, and processes that have defined the country for its entire existence. The pace and volume of change has, intentionally, made it hard to focus. Though housing is not, arguably, where the most drastic destruction is taking place, it has by no means been spared. To try to get a grasp on the magnitude of the changes, we have compiled a roundup, organized by category, of the major housing and community development–related actions and changes we’ve seen so far. We will periodically update this document (noting the date when we do so), at least while the ground continues to shift under everyone’s feet.
Our categories are not mutually exclusive, or exhaustive, just a way to impose a little order on a very long list. We have included:
- Executive orders
- Staffing cuts
- Major grant or contract cancellations
- Budget effects
- Policy and regulatory changes
- Other administrative or operational changes
- Project 2025 goals
- New, expanded, or revived programs
- Effects of actions in other areas on housing (for example, tariffs and attacks on the immigrant workforce increasing the cost of construction).
Overall, the picture is not one of an administration that is actually trying to make sure that people are housed, or that housing is affordable and accessible to more Americans. As in many other areas of the federal government, longstanding recommendations for actually streamlining the operations of HUD and reducing regulatory burdens on housing supply smartly are being ignored in favor of a slash-and-burn approach.
Rather than going through established legislative, budget, and regulatory processes, executive orders have been used as justification for many of the changes. Legal challenges have found in many cases that those executive orders exceeded the power of the executive branch or were unconstitutional, and so many of the cuts and cancellations have been reversed, at least temporarily.
In the short term, the many abrupt changes, payment disruptions, and legal limbo have left tenants and housing providers in a state of deep uncertainty. In the long term, the scale of the cuts portends a devastating loss of knowledge, infrastructure, and resources in the housing sector, with a resultant rise in housing costs, homelessness, and housing discrimination.
Read the roundup.
Editor’s note: We’re keeping track of all the housing-related changes in the Trump administration beyond the first 100 days. Find the most recent updated list of changes here.
If we’ve left out anything major, please let us know at [email protected]. You can also send us ideas for state and local actions that are being taken or could be taken to ameliorate these federal actions, as we’ll be turning some of our reporting attention there next.
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Thanks to all of you for great reporting. I work helping manufactured home communities raise their voices for rights. Even though ousing is a human right, some fail to raise the importance of housing to a higher level than greed!
I will share your work with our group, Iowa Manufactured Home Residents’ Network, and across the country via email and social media.