{"id":44912,"date":"2025-07-17T01:46:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T06:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=44912"},"modified":"2025-07-17T07:03:05","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T12:03:05","slug":"trumps-proposed-hud-time-limit-puts-1-4m-of-the-nations-poorest-renters-risk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=44912","title":{"rendered":"Trump’s proposed HUD time limit puts 1.4M of the nation’s poorest renters risk"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WOODINVILLE, Wash. — Havalah Hopkins rarely says no to the chain restaurant catering gigs that send her out to Seattle-area events \u2014 from church potlucks to office lunches and graduation parties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The delivery fees and tips she earns on top of $18 an hour mean it\u2019s better than minimum-wage shift work, even though it\u2019s not consistent. It helps her afford the government-subsidized apartment<\/a> she and her 14-year-old autistic son have lived in for three years, though it\u2019s still tough to make ends meet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a cycle of feeling defeated and depleted, no matter how much energy and effort and tenacity you have towards surviving,\u201d Hopkins said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, the 33-year-old single mother is grateful she has stable housing \u2014 experts estimate just 1 in 4 low-income households eligible for U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development<\/a> rental assistance get the benefits. And now Hopkins is at risk of losing her home, as federal officials move to restrict HUD policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amid a worsening national affordable housing<\/a> and homelessness crisis, President Donald Trump\u2019s<\/a> administration is determined to reshape HUD’s expansive role providing stable housing for low-income people, which has been at the heart of its mission for generations. The proposed changes include a two-year limit on the federal government\u2019s signature rental assistance programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At a June congressional budget hearing, HUD Secretary Scott Turner argued<\/a> policies like time limits will fix waste and fraud in public housing and Section 8 voucher programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s broken and deviated from its original purpose, which is to temporarily help Americans in need,\u201d Turner said. \u201cHUD assistance is not supposed to be permanent.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the move to restrict such key subsidies would mark a significant retreat from the scope of HUD’s work<\/a>. Millions of tenants moved in with the promise of subsidized housing for as long as they were poor enough to remain qualified, so time limits would be a seismic shift that could destabilize the most vulnerable households, many unlikely to ever afford today\u2019s record-high rents.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

New research from New York University, obtained exclusively by The Associated Press, found that if families were cut off after two years, 1.4 million households could lose their vouchers and public housing subsidies \u2014 largely working families with children. This would lead housing authorities to evict many families, the report said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A broad time limit would cause \u201csubstantial disruption and dislocation,\u201d the it said, noting the policy is largely untested and most of the few housing authorities to voluntarily try it eventually abandoned the pilots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A break from HUD’s long-held purpose of helping house the poor could also jeopardize its contracts with private landlords, who say they’re already feeling the uncertainty as public housing authorities from Seattle to Atlanta announce they’re scaling back in anticipation of federal funding cuts<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Critics fear the restriction could derail those working towards self-sufficiency \u2014 defeating the goal time-limit supporters hope to achieve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HUD spokesperson Kasey Lovett pushed back on the NYU study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is plenty of data that strongly supports time limits and shows that long-term government assistance without any incentive disincentivizes able-bodied Americans to work,\u201d Lovett said in a statement. She primarily cited statistics suggesting low employment among HUD-subsidized tenants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hopkins said the policy would likely leave her and her son homeless in an economy that often feels indifferent<\/a> to working poor people like her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA two-year time limit is ridiculous,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s so disrespectful. I think it\u2019s dehumanizing \u2014 the whole system.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Researchers from the Housing Solutions Lab at New York University\u2019s Furman Center analyzed HUD\u2019s data over a 10-year period and found about 70% of households who could be affected by a two-year limit had already been living on those subsidies for two or more years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s based on 2024 estimates and doesn\u2019t include elderly and disabled people who wouldn’t be subject to time limits. Exempted households make up about half of the roughly 4.9 million households getting rental assistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the first study to examine the proposed policy\u2019s possible impacts, the NYU researchers found time limits would largely punish families who are working but earning far below their area\u2019s median income, which would ultimately shift federal rental assistance away from households with kids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHousing assistance is especially impactful for children,\u201d said Claudia Aiken, the study co-author and director of new research partnerships for the Housing Solutions Lab. Their health, education, employment and earnings potential can “change in really meaningful ways if they have stable housing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It would affect people like Hopkins, whose family was on a years-long waitlist in the expensive region where she grew up. In July 2022, she and her son moved into a two-bedroom public housing unit in Woodinville, Washington. She pays $450 a month in rent \u2014 30% of her household income.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A market-rate apartment in the area costs at least $2,000 more, according to the King County Housing Authority, which in June announced it would pause issuing some new vouchers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hopkins knows she could never afford to live in her home state without rental assistance. It was a relief they could stay as long as they needed. She had been struggling to scrape together hundreds of dollars more a month for her previous trailer home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no words to put on feeling like your housing is secure,\u201d Hopkins said. \u201cI feel like I was gasping for air and I\u2019m finally able to breathe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She credits the housing subsidy for her ability to finally leave an abusive marriage, and still dreams of more \u2014 perhaps her own catering business or working as a party decorator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe all can\u2019t be lawyers and doctors \u2014 and two years isn\u2019t enough to even become that,\u201d Hopkins said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since learning of Trump\u2019s proposal, Hopkins said she’s been haunted by thoughts of shoving her possessions into a van with her son, upending the stability she built for him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The average household in HUD-subsidized housing stays about six years, studies show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HUD funds local public housing projects where nearly 1 million households live and the Section 8 vouchers that about 4 million households use to offset their private rentals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s been little guidance from HUD on how time-limited housing assistance would be implemented \u2014 how it would be enforced, when the clock starts and how the exemptions would be defined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both Democrats and Republicans have acknowledged the potential for time limits to help curb HUD\u2019s notorious waitlists. Hard-liners contend the threat of housing loss will push people to reach self-sufficiency; others see limits, when coupled with support and workforce incentives, as a means to motivate tenants to improve their lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet there are strikingly few successful examples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NYU researchers identified just 17 public housing authorities that have tested time limits. None of the programs were designed for only two years and 11 abandoned the restriction \u2014 despite being able to use federal dollars for services to help people achieve self-sufficiency. Several agencies that dropped the limits said tenants still struggled to afford housing after their time was up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese policies are complex and difficult to monitor, enforce, and do well,\u201d NYU’s Aiken said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The city of Keene, New Hampshire, tried five-year time limits starting in 2001, but terminated the policy before fully enforcing it to avoid kicking out households that would still be \u201crent burdened, or potentially homeless,\u201d said Josh Meehan, executive director of Keene Housing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In California, Shawnt\u00e9 Spears of the Housing Authority of San Mateo County said the agency has kept its five-year time limit in tandem with educational programs she says have \u201cgiven folks motivation\u201d to meet their goals. It also gives more people the chance to use vouchers, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NYU’s Aiken acknowledged HUD’s long waitlists make the current system \u201ca bit of a lottery,” adding: “You could say that time limits are a way of increasing people\u2019s odds in that lottery.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HUD’s Section 8 programs have long depended on hundreds of thousands of for-profit and nonprofit small business owners and property managers to accept tenant vouchers. Now, landlords fear a two-year limit could put their contracts for HUD-subsidized housing in limbo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amid the uncertainty, Denise Muha, executive director of the National Leased Housing Association, said multiple landlord groups have voiced their concerns about HUD’s next budget in a letter to congressional leaders. She said landlords generally agree two years is simply not enough time for most low-income tenants to change their fortunes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs a practical matter, you\u2019re going to increase your turnover, which is a cost,” Muha said. \u201cNobody wants to throw out their tenants without cause.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s always been a significant lift for private landlords to work with HUD subsidies, which involve burdensome paperwork, heavy oversight and maintenance inspections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the trade-off is a near guarantee of dependable longer-term renters and rental income. If that\u2019s compromised, some landlords say they\u2019d pull back from the federal subsidy programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brad Suster, who owns 86 Chicago-area units funded by HUD, said accepting subsidies could become risky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWould we have the same reliability that we know has traditionally come for countless years from the federal government?\u201d Suster said. \u201cThat\u2019s something landlords and owners want to know is there.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The diminishing housing stock available to low-income tenants has been a brewing problem for HUD. Between 2010 and 2020, some 50,000 housing providers left the voucher program, the agency has reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s up for debate whether lawmakers will buy into Trump’s vision for HUD.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week the U.S. House appropriations committee is taking up HUD’s 2026 budget, which so far makes no mention of time limits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HUD’s Lovett noted the Senate\u2019s budget plans for the agency have not yet been released, and said the administration remains focused on future implementation of time limits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHUD will continue to engage with colleagues on the hill to ensure a seamless transition and enforcement of any new time limit,\u201d Lovett said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No\u00eblle Porter, the director of government affairs at the National Housing Law Project, said Trump\u2019s fight for time limits is far from over, noting that legislative and rule changes could make them a reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is clearly a stated goal of the administration to impose work requirements and time limits on rental assistance, even though it would be wildly unpopular,\u201d Porter said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Democratic Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina says there’s no evidence time limits would save HUD money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis doesn\u2019t help families who already are working multiple jobs to become self-sufficient,\u201d Clyburn said at a June hearing. \u201cInstead, it creates chaos, financial uncertainty and pushes these families into more severe trade-offs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Time limits could imperil Aaliyah Barnes’ longtime dream of graduating college and becoming a nurse, finding a job and a home she can afford.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 28-year-old single mom in Louisville, Kentucky, this year joined Family Scholar House, which provides counseling and support for people pursuing an education \u2014 and, to Barnes\u2019 relief, housing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her apartment is paid for by a Section 8 voucher. In March, Barnes moved in and her 3-year-old son, Aarmoni, finally got his own room, where she set up a learning wall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Previously, she had struggled to afford housing on her wages at a call center \u2014 and living with her mom, two sisters and their kids in a cramped house was an environment ridden with arguments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The stable future she\u2019s building could disappear, though, if she’s forced out in two years when her schooling is expected to take three years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019d be so close, but so far away,\u201d Barnes said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

abcnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WOODINVILLE, Wash. — Havalah Hopkins rarely says no to the chain restaurant catering gigs that send her out to Seattle-area events \u2014 from church potlucks to office lunches and graduation parties. The delivery fees and tips she earns on top of $18 an hour mean it\u2019s better than minimum-wage shift work, even though it\u2019s not consistent. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":44913,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[32355,27089,1230],"class_list":["post-44912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-hud","tag-proposed","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44912"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44912\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44914,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44912\/revisions\/44914"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/44913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}