Democrats control the White House and the federal bureaucracy. Meanwhile, blue states such as California lead the way in homelessness and skyrocketing housing costs despite tens of billions in spending. So, it’s fascinating that Democrats say housing is one of their supporters’ top issues. And yet, where are Republican plans to solve affordable housing challenges?
HUD’s annual report to Congress said homelessness rose despite increased spending, noting that “650,000 people were experiencing homelessness on a single night in January 2023, a 12% increase from 2022.” CBS News reported about half of Americans surveyed say they’ve struggled with housing payments.
HUD-generated insights and federal law reveal hurdles and solutions the agency apparently has not properly implemented. HUD’s Pamela Blumenthal and Regina Gray have shared commonsense basics:
- “The United States needs more housing, and more varied types of housing, to meet households’ needs throughout the country.”
- “The consequences of inadequate supply are higher housing costs for both renting and buying a home.”
- “Without significant new supply, cost burdens are likely to increase as current home prices reach all-time highs…”
- “The regulatory environment — federal, state, and local — that contributes to the extensive mismatch between supply and need has worsened over time.”
- “Federally sponsored commissions, task forces, and councils under both Democratic and Republican administrations have examined the effects of land use regulations on affordable housing for more than 50 years.”
Their remarks were fact checked by MHLivingNews.
Then National Association of Home Builders CEO Jerry Howard told Fox Business: “Right now, in almost no market in this country, can a homebuilder build a house that is affordable for a first-time homebuyer. We can’t do it. The costs that are on us make it impossible.”
Solutions must be inherently affordable. Decades of subsidies for costly housing have never solved the affordability crisis and never will. While estimates vary, millions of housing units are needed to restore affordability.
Trump Administration-era HUD Secretary Ben Carson offered a proven free market solution. According to HUD’s website, Carson said:
- “Our nation’s shortage of affordable housing is ultimately an issue of supply and demand. With millions of people in need, high demand is already guaranteed. That’s why HUD has focused our strategy on increasing supply — namely, by promoting initiatives, programs, techniques, and technologies that produce more affordable homes.”
- “Since the key constraint on supply is the cost of new construction and development, the solution to the problem is to change the cost side of the equation.”
- “Manufactured housing has emerged out of the limestone and stepped into the limelight, to address precisely this need.”
- “… the average cost per square foot of a manufactured home is nearly half that of a site-built home … These dramatic cost savings in construction enable responsible citizens to secure housing that may be considerably less expensive than renting or purchasing a site-built home.” [Note: U.S. Census Bureau Data supports Carson’s point].
- “And yet, even at this lower price, manufactured homes appreciate in value at a rate similar to site-built homes, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency Housing Price Index. Sustainable homeownership is the number one builder of financial capital for most American families. For example, the average net worth of a renter is $5,000, while the average net worth of a homeowner is $200,000. … But with comparable home appreciation rates to site-built homes, manufactured homes exhibit their own extraordinary potential to be a wealth creation tool for ordinary, everyday American families.”
What Carson didn’t say is this: In a bipartisan vote after a dozen years of research, Congress enacted the Manufactured Housing Improvement Act of 2000 (MHIA). It was signed into law by then-President Bill Clinton. The MHIA provided new consumer protections and gave HUD “enhanced preemption” authority to unlock public opposition roadblocks.
While manufactured housing is mentioned over a dozen times, nowhere in the Biden-Harris plan, nor in the new Democrats plan is the MHIA and enhanced federal preemption mentioned.
Republicans are supposed to champion the free market. The MHIA’s preemptive authority already exists that could be invoked today by federal or local officials. Democrats supported that per a letter signed by party leadership in 2003. No other proven housing technology exists that mathematically can solve the affordable housing crisis.
When will lawmakers and bureaucrats of either major party use existing laws and the free market to solve housing problems? Do we want more tent cities or more manufactured and other kinds of homes?
L. A. “Tony” Kovach is a co-founder of Manufactured Home Living News and Manufactured Home Pro News.