(Photo: Clayton Henkel)
Few domestic policy issues have proven more challenging in recent years than the affordable housing shortage. The Biden administration was making some real and encouraging headway before it left office by working to expedite housing construction and aiding renters and first time homebuyers, but sadly that momentum is quickly being frittered away.
Recently, the Trump administration announced plans to cut the Department of Housing and Urban Development by 50 percent and all but eliminate HUD’s Office of Community Planning and Development — the folks who oversee disaster recovery, homelessness services and numerous other community grants.
Samuel Gunter of the North Carolina Housing Coalition, says the cuts promise to be quote “catastrophic” for our state.
“We’re in an existential crisis in affordable housing and community development,” Gunter said.
The bottom line: President Trump campaigned on a pledge to expand the nation’s stock of affordable housing, but his planned cuts will do just the opposite. It’s essential that our state’s congressional delegation push back.
For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.