Among the top concerns of city leaders across the country are the cost and availability of housing, said speakers and participants at the National League of Cities Congressional City Conference this week in Washington, D.C. The NLC has developed programs focusing on locally driven housing supply initiatives.
Speakers at the conference said that housing availability and affordability can be a barrier to economic growth and hinder workforce development. “Housing is not about party; housing is about people,” said Clearfield, Utah, Mayor Mark Shepherd. “We have to, as leaders, take care of our people.”
Vice President JD Vance spoke to conference attendees about the Trump administration’s approach to improving the housing situation. “We want Americans to be able to afford the American dream of home ownership because we know that when people own their homes, it makes them a stakeholder,” he said.
Vance cited local zoning as one of the key reasons for higher housing costs and complimented Austin, Texas, for policy changes to address the problem. As the city became a magnet for technology workers and wealthier residents, rental costs and home prices soared. Last year, Austin began allowing single-family homes to be built on smaller lots and apartment buildings along a planned light-rail line to be closer to private homes. “It's one of the few major American cities where you see the cost of housing leveling off or even coming down,” Vance said.
The vice president also called for “slashing needless regulations,” and said that another reason for high housing costs is the influx of migrants. “If you allow 20 million people to compete with American citizens for the cost of homes, you are going to have a large and, frankly, completely preventable spike in the demand for housing, and that is what we, of course, have seen,” Vance said.
Large-scale immigrant deportations could reduce the demand for housing in some locations but could also tighten the construction labor force, Janneke Ratcliffe, vice president of the Urban Institute’s housing and communities division, said at an earlier NLC housing summit.
Scott Turner’s appointment as the new secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development has been met with praise and guarded optimism by housing developers and advocates. A former Texas state representative, he also served in the first Trump administration, where he helped develop and implement opportunity zones to encourage investment in distressed areas of the U.S. However, advocates for affordable and low-income housing are wary of Turner’s commitment to the Fair Housing Act and federal homelessness programs.
Vance, who was alternately heckled and applauded during his 20-minute speech at the NLC conference, closed with a nod toward helping blue-collar workers own homes. “I think that one thing that unites us in this room is that we want to give our blue-collar people in the United States of America a shot at the American dream again.”
