President Donald Trump is banking on the votes of ‘suburban housewives’ after he ended a policy that expands low income housing in suburban neighborhoods, according to a Wednesday tweet.
The “suburban housewife” will be voting for me. They want safety & are thrilled that I ended the long running program where low income housing would invade their neighborhood. Biden would reinstall it, in a bigger form, with Corey Booker in charge! @foxandfriends @MariaBartiromo
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 12, 2020
Trump rescinded the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) rule in July, which forced communities receiving funds from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to produce an assessment showing they made grand efforts to ensure there was fair and affordable housing available, according to MarketWatch.
HUD Secretary Dr. Ben Carson says the policy was “ultimately a waste of time,” pointing to other initiatives passed by the Trump Administration to address inequality in neighborhoods, according to an official statement.
“Washington has no business dictating what is best to meet your local community’s unique needs,” Carson said in the same statement.
The Trump Administration is introducing the Preserving Community and Neighborhood Choice initiative, which will allow communities “maximum flexibility in designing and implementing sound policies” that fall in line with local needs by amending the definition of affordable housing, according to the proposal.
The new definition of AFFH is to mean housing that is “affordable, safe, decent, free of unlawful discrimination, and accessible as required under civil rights laws” and defines “affirmatively further” to mean “any action rationally related to promoting any attribute or attributes of fair housing,” according to the initiative. HUD claims doing this will “shift the burden away from communities so they are not forced to comply with complicated regulations” that require in-depth paperwork, according to the statement.
But the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) says that “further fair housing” could be as simple as donating an abandoned building to a developer to rehabilitate and rent to low-income households. They also said Carson’s claim that AFFH caused undue financial burden on communities was false, and that “jurisdictions were not forced changes to zoning laws or undertake greater controversial obligations,” according to their statement.
The president claimed that rescinding the policy would drive down crime in a previous tweet. (RELATED: Trump Reassures Suburban America: Don’t Worry About ‘Low Income Housing’ Messing Up The Neighborhood)
I am happy to inform all of the people living their Suburban Lifestyle Dream that you will no longer be bothered or financially hurt by having low income housing built in your neighborhood…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2020
Presumptive Democratic Nominee Joe Biden says if elected president he’ll tackle the issue of affordable housing by investing $640 billion over 10 years to increasing the supply of affordable housing. He also says he’ll change the definition of affordable to mean housing that is “taking up no more than 30% of income,” according to his campaign website.