Where the Presidential Candidates Stand on Housing
Mariah RedfernMarketing and Communications Manager · August 29, 2024
Housing prices continue to burden American families, causing voters to look to elected officials to end the housing shortage and bring down costs for everyone. Housing has finally become a central policy issue on the…
Housing prices continue to burden American families, causing voters to look to elected officials to end the housing shortage and bring down costs for everyone. Housing has finally become a central policy issue on the national stage, and voters need to know which candidates are committed to taking bold action with housing policies that will make the most impact on Americans’ daily lives.
Where do Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump stand on housing? Will they create and incentivize solutions at all levels of government to increase the supply of housing and make our homes more affordable?
We have compiled policies, speeches, and other evidence to evaluate where each candidate stands on the key issues that will make housing abundant, affordable, sustainable, and equitable across the US.
Our Core 5 Policy Solutions are key to making homes more affordable, reducing poverty, ending homelessness, and creating inclusive and sustainable neighborhoods nationwide. These solutions are the criteria we used to evaluate each candidate's stances on housing.
In addition to specific policies, it is important to ask if the candidates fundamentally see the issue of housing affordability the way we do. Do the candidates recognize that we have a housing shortage? In their public rhetoric, what do they say is driving up housing prices for everyday Americans?
Here’s what we found:
The two candidates demonstrate a stark difference in their approach to housing policy, their rhetoric, and their commitment to YIMBY values. During and after the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Kamala Harris centered housing policies as a main component of her campaign, demonstrating her awareness of the housing shortage and commitment to ending it through housing policies backed by the YIMBY Action Core's 5 solutions. Donald Trump on the other hand does not have a plan to boost housing supply, affordability, stability, or any other reforms that will help Americans with one of our biggest monthly expenses. His dehumanizing rhetoric about immigrants and our unhoused neighbors also demonstrates that his values differ dramatically from YIMBY Action and our members.
“There’s a serious housing shortage. In many places it’s too difficult to build and it’s driving prices up. As President I will work in partnership with industry to build the housing we need both to rent and to buy. We will cut down barriers and cut red tape including at the state and local levels. And by the end of my first term we will end America’s housing shortage by building 3 million new homes and rentals that are affordable for the middle class.”
Housing won't fix itself
Every win in every city starts with people who decided to show up. Join them.
Her call to end our nation's housing shortage is not only a significant call to action for our government to support more supply, it's also the first time a presidential nominee has called it out so explicitly and marks an important shift in how political leaders are talking about housing policy. Harris has elevated the national housing shortage to the highest stage, and this acknowledgment of the shortage will create more pressure for housing policy at all levels of government to address the root of our problem: a shortage of homes.
Meanwhile, the Trump campaign website does not acknowledge the housing shortage nor does it address the policies that would be necessary to end it. On the contrary, former President Trump has repeatedly blamed immigrants for taking resources from Americans and the Republican Party explicitly aims to “Stop Illegal Immigration Republicans will secure the Border, deport Illegal Aliens, and reverse the Democrats’ Open Borders Policies that have driven up the cost of Housing…”
Additionally, former President Trump’s campaign website describes the homelessness crisis as “the nightmare of the homeless,” claiming cities “have become unlivable, unsanitary nightmares, surrendered to the homeless, the drug addicted, and the violent and dangerously deranged.” He is committed to banning “urban camping” across the US and does not include housing as a solution to homelessness.
These two rhetorical frameworks indicate entirely different worldviews on housing: one that reflects YIMBY values and policy standpoints and another that vilifies people for needing shelter.
Policy Solution 1: Legalize Housing
YIMBYs advocate for our leaders to remove zoning barriers to both subsidized and unsubsidized housing in all neighborhoods for people at all income levels, particularly in historically affluent and exclusionary neighborhoods. Removing these barriers will increase the supply of homes for all of us, and therefore bring down prices.
YIMBY Action Gives Harris a Grade... B on Legalizing Housing
While in office, the Biden-Harris administration has encouraged local and state governments to build more homes through their Housing Supply Action Plan, a five-year plan to close the housing supply gap. In June, the Biden-Harris administration announced the first grantees of the Pathways to Removing Obstacles (PRO) Housing program. This program through the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) will award $100 million to help communities remove barriers to building new homes. Additionally, they have directed several federal agencies to assess vacant or underutilized land that can be reallocated for the construction of low-cost and climate-resilient housing.
The Biden-Harris Administration also worked to update the HUD Code to make it easier to build multi-unit manufactured homes. HUD will update its Manufactured Home Construction and Safety Standards to allow duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes to be built under the HUD Code, extending the cost-saving benefits of these types of homes to multifamily housing for the first time. Vice President Harris also plans to "take action to make certain federal lands eligible to be repurposed for new housing developments that families can afford."
YIMBY Action Gives Trump a Grade... D on Legalizing Housing
A D grade in this category is generous, because while former President Trump technically names one of the key causes of the housing shortage (zoning), he does not have a plan to address it in order to make housing abundant and affordable. Previously, he had stated a strong desire to protect the suburbs.
His campaign website states that his agenda will build upon former President Trump’sactions during his administration to protect the suburbs byrepealing the Obama-Biden administration’s Affirmatively Further Fair Housing (AFFH) rule. The Obama-Biden rule in question was a requirement that jurisdictions that receive federal housing funds have to assess what patterns of housing discrimination they have and then come up with a plan to reduce or eliminate them. Trump wrote in a 2020 op-ed that his administration believed the rule would have empowered HUD to "abolish single-family zoning, compel the construction of high-density 'stack and pack' apartment buildings in residential neighborhoods, and forcibly transform neighborhoods across America."
Solution 2: Fund Affordable Housing
We support increases in funding for subsidized affordable housing through a variety of mechanisms to ensure people at the lowest income levels have access to stable, affordable homes.
YIMBY Action Gives Harris a Grade... B on Funding Affordable Housing
Kamala Harris is proposing a $40 billion fund, doubling the size of the Biden-Harris administration's proposed $20 billion, to support local governments to spur innovation to increase the supply of affordable homes across the US. The Harris-Walz administration is also proposing a "historic expansion of the existing tax incentive for businesses that build rental housing that is affordable."
As the current VP, Harris worked with President Biden to invest $37 billion in the expansion of the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC), which is the largest federal incentive for affordable housing construction.
YIMBY Action Gives Trump a Grade... F on Funding Affordable Housing
At the time of this writing, there is no indication that Trump plans to increase affordable housing funding should he win the presidency in November. During Trump's administration, he and his team actually cut affordable housing and community development programs through HUD. He would likely seek similar cuts if reelected.
Solution 3: Increase Housing Stability
We advocate for laws that protect tenants and policies that protect vulnerable communities so everyone has access to a stable home.
YIMBY Action Gives Harris a Grade... B on Increasing Housing Stability
The White House introduced a Blueprint for a Renters Bill of Rights in January 2023 aimed at protecting renters and promoting rental affordability. Some of the standout actions in this blueprint include ensuring fair tenant screening practices, examining proposed actions promoting renter protections and limits on egregious rent increases, and supporting renters to organize without threat of retaliation from their housing providers.
More recently, the Biden-Harris Administration has added new steps to this blueprint including increasing housing choice vouchers (often known as Section 8) and cracking down on corporate rent price gouging and rental application junk fees.
YIMBY Action Gives Trump a Grade... F on Increasing Housing Stability
Former President Trump does not discuss increasing housing stability on his campaign website. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Trump temporarily halted evictions to slow the spread of the virus, though those protections were short lived. Additionally, under Trump, HUD proposed a rule in 2019 targeting immigrant households that would have "banned 'mixed-status' families — comprised of household members who are both eligible and ineligible for federal housing assistance — from living in public housing and [using] Section 8 programs.”
Solution 4: Streamline Permitting
YIMBYs advocate for policies that make housing permits fast and fair to discourage unnecessary delays that make the homebuilding process slower.
YIMBY Action Gives Harris a Grade... A on Streamlining Permitting
Under the Biden-Harris administration, the Department of Transportation (DOT) has announced new guidance "to streamline and clarify requirements for closing DOT loans for residential development near transit, including commercial-to-residential conversions." New DOT guidance has also clarified that some conversion projects utilizing federal loans may have exclusions from lengthy environmental reviews that cause delays "as long as those projects do not expand the footprint of the building being converted or modify other facilities."
In April, the White House released a fact sheet that discussed the progress that the Biden-Harris Administration has made on their Investing in America agenda. The White House has developed and is currently executing a Permitting Action Plan to speed up permitting and environmental reviews for infrastructure and clean energy projects, including sustainable housing projects.
Finally, the Harris campaign supports the Housing Supply Action Plan which calls for support for permits of different kinds of homes such as manufactured homes and ADUs; these new homes would help the US close our supply gap.
YIMBY Action Gives Trump a Grade... D on Streamlining Permitting
In his Bloomberg interview, Trump did indicate that similarly to zoning, there are several permitting and bureaucratic processes that delay housing construction; however, Trump's Agenda47 does not address housing project permitting. The agenda does call for streamlined permits on certain infrastructure and energy projects, but they do not focus on housing.
Solution 5: Fix Incentives
We must reform structures such as tax systems and car-centric transportation systems that incentivize communities to say no to new homes.
YIMBY Action Gives Harris a Grade... B on Fixing Incentives
As mentioned above, Vice President Harris supports the expansion of the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit to build or preserve millions more affordable rental homes. The Harris campaign has also proposed a first-ever tax credit for homebuilders who build starter homes for first-time buyers.
The Harris-Walz campaign proposes a new $40 billion innovation fund—doubling the $20 billion Biden-Harris Administration’s proposed innovation fund. It would empower local governments to fund local solutions to build housing. It would also go further to support innovative methods of construction financing, and empower developers and homebuilders to design and build rental and housing solutions that are affordable. The Biden-Harris administration's budget also proposed a new Neighborhood Homes Tax Credit, which would be the first tax provision to directly support building or renovating affordable homes for homeownership.
YIMBY Action Gives Trump a Grade... F on Fixing Incentives
Former President Trump has not proposed new incentives to build homes nor has he proposed fixing existing incentives that encourage policymakers and residents to say no to new homes.
Final Conclusions:
Vice President Harris has spent her years in office planning actions aligned with our Core 5 Policy solutions. Since launching her campaign for President, she has made housing a primary focus in her rhetoric and policy proposals; plus, her VP pick has a history of supporting pro-housing policies. If she is elected in November, YIMBYs must encourage and pressure her and her administration to follow through on these promises to ensure more homes are built and housing becomes affordable and abundant across the country.
In contrast, former President Trump has not prioritized the housing shortage in his policy platform. On the contrary, during his time in office he initiated several actions that worked against our policy solutions and encouraged more exclusionary neighborhoods and less support for affordable housing.
Our Core 5 policy solutions continue to chip away at the housing shortage and affordability crisis in cities and states where they're passed and enforced. Now that YIMBY principles and policies are being talked about on the national stage, we're excited to continue to see a shift toward housing abundance and affordability. Voters have spoken loud and clear that housing is a top issue in this election, and candidates are responding by centering housing supply and affordability solutions in their campaigns. We have a chance to elect pro-housing leaders at every level of government this November, and YIMBY Action has the resources voters need to make these crucial decisions in one of the most important elections in recent history. Before you vote, use this scorecard and our official voter guide to help elect pro-housing candidates in your city, county, and state. Let's elect more pro-housing candidates down the ballot this November!
