OPINION: Trump Will Try to Eliminate Section 8 and Other Housing Assistance Programs

Post-Election Update: As Dave gathers his thoughts for his next article about how the Trump presidency will affect the needs of low-income renters, you can apply to more than 500 open Section 8 waiting lists nationwide, and search your area of interest to find affordable housing options near you.

Editorial Note:  After deep consideration, we have decided to endorse a candidate for President of the United States because this election may be the most important election in several decades to poor Americans. Affordable Housing Online endorses Hillary Clinton for President. Please vote on Tuesday, November 8, 2016. If you don’t know where your polling place is, look it up here.

Donald Trump believes that Section 8 and other housing assistance programs are unnecessary and that the free market can and should be used to provide housing.

Now Trump has published several policy positions on his web site and in countless speeches and interviews has expressed dozens of opinions on how the government should function. Some of his policies include excruciating details, like the exact height of his border wall. But, his policy points do not include any mention of affordable housing. Nor has any of his stump speeches or media interviews.

Since Trump has not mentioned affordable housing or Section 8 even once, how do I know this?

By reading in between the lines.

Let’s start with his opponent. Hillary Clinton has an affordable housing policy proposal which includes investing further in the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program, easing land use laws to make building affordable housing easier and targeting housing funding to areas that provide the most economic opportunity to its residents.

You would think, since affordable housing is an important issue to the majority of voters this election season, even Donald Trump would address their concerns with a published policy, but he hasn’t.

The same goes for his policy to fight poverty. His plan? Create jobs.

That’s it. His solution to poverty and the affordable housing crisis is to create more jobs.

OK, great. If he was able to create many millions of jobs that paid at least the housing wage, the hourly wage needed to afford a decent rental apartment, we would not need any housing assistance programs!

Problem solved, right?

Well, wait a second. How is Trump going to create several million jobs that pay on average $20.30 per hour (the national housing wage)?

It’s a secret. He’s not going to tell you. Much like his plan to defeat ISIS, you just have to trust him.

Why shouldn’t you trust him? Well for starters, he has publicly said the minimum wage should be done away with, completely, I mean set to $0. If a fast food restaurant decides they’re only willing to pay $2 an hour and there are employees willing to work for that, that’s perfectly acceptable.. That’s what it means to rely on the free market.

And if relying on the free market is truly his plan, then he places no priority on housing subsidies like Section 8 that helps renters afford the cost of housing.

Another clue that Trump would try to get rid of all housing assistance programs is his opinion on citizens who are receiving public assistance like food stamps. In his opinion, if you are receiving food stamps, you aren’t working and you are sitting at home because you have an incentive not to work. His solution is to “take away the incentive” to do nothing and create an incentive to work.

Sounds to me like taking away the incentive means he wants to take away the subsidy. He wants low income Americans to go get a second or third job to replace that subsidy he plans to take away.

This speaks to Trump’s fundamental misunderstanding of people who receive public assistance. Just because someone receives food stamps or a Section 8 voucher does not mean they don’t work. With a minimum wage that is about one third the amount required to afford a safe place to live, even a full time worker needs some subsidies for food, housing and child care.

In fact, a front desk clerk at a Trump hotel in Chicago can expect to earn $18 per hour but she would have to earn $22.62 per hour to afford a 2 bedroom apartment in Chicago. How does she make up the difference? Through various government subsidies.

So, many, if not most of Trump’s employees he so proudly talks about having created jobs for, qualify for and likely receive some form of government subsidy whether it be food stamps, housing assistance or child care assistance.

Who is actually receiving those subsidies? Donald Trump is. See, since the free market isn’t providing Trump’s employees adequate resources to buy all the basic goods and services required to live, the government has to help out.

The U.S. taxpayer is subsidizing Trump’s businesses.

The bottom line is that Trump’s loosely thrown together plan to tackle poverty by creating jobs using the free market is full of holes. He hasn’t even been able to create jobs in his own businesses that don’t require Federal subsidies to make those employees’ lives sustainable.

You can be sure that he will try to eliminate as many public assistance programs as possible to pay for his tax cuts. He will promise magical job growth that won’t materialize and the poverty rate will soar.

It is more important than ever that Americans exercise their right to vote and stop Trump from decimating America's economic safety net that has been in place for nearly 100 years.

Affordable Housing Online endorses Hillary Clinton for President. Please vote on Tuesday, November 8, 2016.