Trump Creates Council to Study 'Eliminating Barriers to Affordable Housing Development'

[Updated August 19, 2019]

[Update: Planetizen has gathered additional news coverage of the new White House Council on Eliminating Regulatory Barriers to Affordable Housing in a separate article, published on June 26, 2019.]

[Update: the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has published a press release to announce the creation of the White House Council on Eliminating Regulatory Barriers to Affordable Housing via executive order signed on June 25, 2019.]

"The Trump administration will explore using federal programs to push local governments to soften or eliminate rules that block housing construction, an issue that has stymied officials at all levels of government for years," according to an article by Laura Kusisto.

"President Trump is expected to sign an order Tuesday creating the White House Council on Eliminating Barriers to Affordable Housing Development [sic], which will include members of eight federal agencies," adds Kusisto.

Kusisto notes the limitations of federal power in overturning local land use regulations, but the council will "produce a study quantifying the effect of regulations on the housing market and the U.S. economy as a whole." Kusisto references "The State of the Nation's Housing" report, published today by the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University to describe the current housing market in context of today's actions by the Trump administration.

In attendance at the signing will be U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, who has "made easing barriers for the private sector to build housing the signature issue of his tenure as HUD secretary," according to Kusisto (as well as several articles in the Planetizen archive).

The news about the Trump administration taking this additional step against local control of land use regulations comes shortly after Republican Senator Todd Young of Indiana introduced the "Yes In My Back Yard Act," which would leverage Community Development Block Grants to hold city's accountable for their housing policies.