Two months from now, a new Congress will finalize the election of Donald J. Trump as the 47th President of the United States. It will do so with a Republican led Senate and a likely Republican House of Representatives. This new government will have been chosen in a decisive election, with President Trump having won the popular vote by over 3 million votes and the electoral college with 312 votes.
Some NHC members are still deeply grieving this result, while others welcome it as a much needed change. Many fall somewhere in a wide range between the two. It’s been a hard campaign with a lot of intense feelings, strong, often offensive rhetoric, and deeply held fears. It’s going to take time to move forward as a nation, and how we do that, will continue to mean very different things to each of us.
There will be opportunities for us to begin to heal. One of them will be the Thanksgiving dinner table in mixed households. Can I listen with curiosity and not contempt? Can I empathize without having to agree? Can I leave the debates of 2024 behind me and those of 2025 for the future? Honestly, I don’t know, but I’m going to try. Another opportunity will be NHC’s Solutions for Affordable Housing convening on December 4. That will be an easier venue for us to begin this work, because we are unified in our support of affordable housing and serving the people who need it most.
For NHC, little will change. We will continue to serve as a diverse continuum of affordable housing stakeholders that convene and collaborate through dialogue, advocacy, research, and education, to develop equitable solutions that serve our common interest: an America where everyone is able to live in a quality, affordable home in a thriving community.
To further this mission, NHC has drafted several dozen one pager policy recommendations that have broad support across the affordable housing advocacy ecosystem. They include recommendations for statutory, regulatory, and administrative changes. We will also be working with our Policy and Research Committee to review these recommendations and organize them into a 2025-2026 Policy Agenda that will be formally approved by our Board of Governors in March.
Our highest priorities for the first 100 days of the new administration will remain the enactment of two housing supply bills that have strong bipartisan support, the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act and the Neighborhood Homes Investment Act. With the likelihood of a Budget Reconciliation bill being approved early in 2025, both of these long sought after bills stand a good chance of passing – if we work together.
Other opportunities, and challenges, will take more time. As was reported in Housing Wire, I wrote last week, “in governing, policy is personnel and who is appointed will largely determine what gets done in the housing space.” This will feature prominently in appointments for Treasury Secretary, Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and Chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Who chairs the Senate Banking and Finance committees and the House Financial Services and Ways and Means committees will also be highly consequential. We look forward to working with them on our shared priorities. We are also grateful for the service of those men and women who have worked so hard in these demanding positions for the past four years.
Regulatory policy is likely to see the most immediate and dramatic change. Last week, I discussed this with MarketWatch, noting that “as a regulator, you can be a lapdog, a guard dog, or an attack dog… and we need a guard dog. Voters have been clear that they want regulation that does not treat corporations like they’re the enemy.” Nor do they want markets without guardrails.
A longer term priority for a new administration is likely to be the future of the three Government Sponsored Enterprises: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Home Loan Banks. Who leads FHFA and Treasury will largely determine these issues. For a detailed discussion of NHC’s perspective on reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, see our 2019 report, Restoring the American Dream Through Focused Housing Finance Reform. Early next year, we will host a major conference on the future of the Federal Home Loan Banks.
NHC will continue to be a leading voice for bipartisan, tangible, impactful, and achievable policies that expand homeownership and make renting more affordable. We invite you to join us in that effort, both as a member of NHC, and as a participant at our Solutions for Affordable Housing convening at the National Press Club on December 4. I look forward to seeing you soon.