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Shelby R. King

48 Posts

Shelby R. King is Shelterforce's investigative reporter. She began her reporting career in 2010 covering cops/public safety and has been writing about housing and community development since 2014.
To represent the Trump administration: The portico of the White House overlooking the South Lawn. An imposing building with columns marking a two-story portico and a balcony on the second floor. Angled staircases on either side lead up to the first floor. On the lawn, trees in leaf frame the portico on either side. The photo has an eerie red tint.
Reported Article

Trump’s First 100 Days: What’s Happened with Housing?

We’ve compiled a roundup of the major housing and community development–related actions and changes we’ve seen so far in Trump’s second term.

A bright orange notice on an exterior door. It reads: Warning/This is a notice to vacate/the following address. A handwritten address is written on a line. There is more difficult-to-read text in both English and Spanish.
Reported Article

The Government Didn’t Pay My Rent. Now What?

Housing Choice Voucher holders rely on their local housing authority to pay the bulk of their rent. What happens if it isn’t paid?

View from behind of three officers in black shirts that read "Police/Ice" taking a handcuffed man in jeans and a white T-shirt toward a partially visible truck. Two of the officers are men, one a pony-tailed woman.
Reported Article

ICE Is Coming to Your Building—Are You Ready?

If you have residents or clients who might be targeted by ICE (you do), it’s crucial to know what to do, and what not to do, when immigration officials show up.

Three actors in a play: a Black woman looking offstage and pointing, a Black man holding on to her other arm, and a white woman reaching toward the Black man, a coffee cup in her other hand. They're in front of some steps and behind them is a graffiti'd wall
Review

Clybourne Park on Stage, Housing Inequity in Real Life—A Post-Show Reflection

Clybourne Park—a play exploring race, real estate, and community tensions—can set the stage for discussion on the lasting impacts of housing discrimination, gentrification, and the fight for affordability. What lessons can we take from the past to shape a more just housing future?

An older white couple sits side by side at a table covered with paper, folders, calculator, pens, and laptop. They're looking at a document with apparent worry or anxiety.
Reported Article

Section 8 Under Trump: How Policy Uncertainty Is Affecting Affordable Housing

As Trump reshapes the federal landscape, Housing Choice Voucher recipients, landlords, and administrators brace for potential funding cuts and fiscal chaos.

View of the U.S. Capitol at dusk, with a darkening blue sky, bright dome, and warm glowing exterior lights on the building.
Reported Article

What’s Going On With the HUD Budget?

As the federal government teeters on the edge of a shutdown, housing advocates warn of cuts to affordable housing programs in the remaining months of FY 2025—and say to brace for even deeper threats in FY 2026. From the loss of rental vouchers to slashed homeless assistance grants, what’s at risk now and what should advocates prepare for in the coming budget battles?

A smiling middle-aged white woman in a black jacket leans over the white porch railing of a blue house surrounded by shrubs and plants. On either side of her are hanging pots of colorful flowers. To the left of the house is a round patio table with furled umbrella and four chairs.
Reported Article

Mission-Driven or Profit-Driven? Enterprise’s Hidden Role in Mobile Home Park Purchases

Despite Enterprise Community Partners’ majority voting stake in Bellwether Enterprise, the nonprofit lender long insisted it couldn’t address its subsidiary commercial mortgage lender’s questionable lending for mobile home park purchases.

An elderly white man in a blue knit shirt seen from the side sits at a table spread with documents.
Reported Article

Manufactured Crisis: Losing the Nation’s Largest Source of Unsubsidized Affordable Housing

Manufactured housing communities have long been an affordable housing option for millions of people living in the U.S., but that affordability is disappearing rapidly. How did we get here?

Illustration with portion of waving American flag at top left, a paper in a portfolio headed "Executive order" in the center, and a pen resting on the paper. Background is a brown map of the world, mostly covered, but with North America faintly visible.
Reported Article

How Might Tariffs and Deportations Affect Affordable Housing Development?

Many affordable housing developers worry Trump’s proposed taxes on imports and crackdown on immigration will be detrimental to the industry. Others hope deregulation reduces development costs enough to offset those effects. What’s the most likely outcome?

Eleven school desks, the kind with attached chairs, closely spaced in three rows. No one is in the chairs.
Reported Article

Fact Check: New Housing Doesn’t Lead to Overcrowded Schools

A common refrain heard by locals opposed to new housing developments is that area schools can’t absorb the increase in students they’ll bring. As the nation approaches an “enrollment cliff,” the data tells a different story.

exterior of HUD building in Washington, D.C.
Reported Article

Who Could Lead HUD Under a Second Trump Administration?

The president-elect’s cabinet picks so far have been controversial, often alarming. What might that mean for housing?

In focus in foreground is a tower of small blocks atop which is a tiny model of a white house with gray pitched roof. Behind the house is a white man in a business suit, out of focus except for his hand, which is holding one of the blocks supporting the house, as if to pull it away.
Reported Article

How Project 2025 Would Dismantle HUD

The Heritage Foundation’s “conservative playbook” isn’t new, but critics say the latest version’s policies and platforms are more discriminatory and dangerous than in the past.