Trump Administration to Take on Local Housing Barriers

wsj – excerpt

President signs order creating White House Council on Eliminating Barriers to Affordable Housing Development…

The new Trump council will produce a study quantifying the effect of regulations on the housing market and the U.S. economy as a whole. Its members will include representatives of the Treasury Department, the Labor Department, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Agriculture Department, which will also examine ways to roll back federal regulations inhibiting housing development.

Mr. Carson has made easing barriers for the private sector to build housing the signature issue of his tenure as HUD secretary. He has toured a factory that uses a 3-D printer to build homes faster and cheaper and most recently hosted an event that showcased affordably priced manufactured homes on the National Mall…(more)

The headline alone is enough to raise a lot of questions about the anti-CEQA, anti-environment movement that is sweeping through the state and federal legislature and making its way into some of our local cities and counties as well, as they rush to open the door to unlimited development by removing the public right to appeal development projects. Who is behind this? What other values do Trump and YIMBIES share?

We shouldn’t be too surprised that Trump is interested in affordable housing. His family made their money on it. Woody Guthrie wrote a song about his father when he lived in one of his places, called “Old Man Trump”. We found a recording: