Nearly eight years ago to the day, I used this column to convey a litany of concerns and uncertainties surrounding the future of the city’s public housing system under then incoming President, Donald Trump.
In the intervening years, New York’s affordable housing crisis has gotten worse, and the city’s public housing residents continue to suffer under subpar housing conditions mostly due to systemic lack of funding. As Trump prepares for a return to the White House, the stakes could not be higher for preserving and sustaining public housing, the city’s greatest affordable housing resource.
By sheer numbers alone, the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) is the largest housing authority in the country, bigger than many small U.S. cities and home to more than half a million low- and moderate-income residents living in more than 300 public housing developments across the five boroughs.
Decades of government disinvestment at all levels have devastated NYCHA’s housing infrastructure leaving its residents — who are predominantly Black and Latino — to cope daily with leaky roofs, stalled and broken elevators, fragile plumbing and other deplorable conditions underscoring the widespread indifference to the housing needs of the working poor.
Trump’s choice for HUD Secretary in his first term, Ben Carson a retired neurosurgeon, led the agency in a direction that was counter to its mission, which in short is to: “ create strong, sustainable, inclusive communities and quality affordable homes for all.” In fact, during Trump’s first term, Carson proposed slashing the Housing and Urban Development budget by 13 to 18 percent. Apart from his efforts to decimate the HUD budget, Carson also proposed new rules raising tenant rent contributions, from 30 percent of adjusted income to 35 percent of gross income.
Perhaps hard to believe, but it was a Republican-controlled Congress that rejected the rule changes. But that did not stop Trump and Carson from trying to gut the agency, including proposing the elimination of HUD’s Public Housing Capital Fund and reducing its operating funds by 37 percent, measures that would have crippled the agency’s capacity to both fund infrastructure upgrades in public housing systems and address general maintenance needs. The Trump Administration also proposed limiting eligibility for Section 8 vouchers and cutting $5 billion in federal funding for the program which would have eliminated more than 9,000 vouchers for New York City.
New York’s high cost of living has significantly limited housing options for many working families. Should Trump pursue similar budget cuts in his second term, it could lead to higher rates of evictions and homelessness.
Judging by Trump’s nearly complete takeover of the GOP, it is highly conceivable that renewed efforts on his part to slash federal funding and dismantle parts of the federal government in a second term will meet with far less resistance from Congress. With control of the House of Representatives and U.S. Senate in Republican hands, there will be fewer guardrails in place to stop the president’s more destructive impulses. All the more reason our city and state leaders must prioritize the preservation of public housing.
While no specific details on his plans for housing emerged on the 2024 campaign trail, a chapter in Project 2025 on HUD written by former HUD Secretary Carson, calls for ending all Housing First policies, prohibits mixed-status families from living in federally assisted housing and eliminates funding for affordable housing production or for reducing barriers to affordable housing production. The same chapter also tacitly endorses private investment when public housing land is sold.
Trump’s pick to lead HUD in his second term is Scott Turner, a former professional football player and Texas State Representative who previously served as executive director of the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council. In that role, Turner was in charge of attracting investment in so-called “Opportunity Zones,” which offer lucrative tax incentives for financing projects in economically depressed communities. Critics of the program called it a gimmick to give wealthy investors tax breaks to finance projects they would have backed even without the incentives.
It remains to be seen if Turner, who will oversee an agency responsible for addressing the nation’s housing needs, enforcing fair housing laws and sheltering more than four million low-income families through public housing, rental subsidies and voucher programs will be a strong advocate for preserving affordable housing. In articles he’s published on the America First Policy Institute website, he credits President Trump with helping Black Americans rise out of poverty and build wealth.
I know few people who agree with that assertion. But, if confirmed as HUD Secretary, Turner will certainly have the tools and resources to invest in the nation’s housing needs. And if he chooses to wield the agency’s authority, he can help America’s poorest citizens improve their lives and economic standing.
However, you cannot foster economic mobility among those must in need by cutting crucial funding areas in the HUD budget that allows public housing to fall into disrepair, low-income residents to be displaced and long-standing communities to decline. Let’s hope the future HUD Secretary agrees.
David R. Jones, Esq., is President and CEO of the Community Service Society of New York (CSS), the leading voice on behalf of low-income New Yorkers for more than 175 years. The views expressed in this column are solely those of the writer. The Urban Agenda is available on CSS’s website: www.cssny.org.