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Local housing leaders in New Bedford say they aren’t sure what Donald Trump’s reelection means for the housing crisis, but that they look forward to working with the new presidential administration.
On the campaign trail, Trump did not outline a detailed housing plan for his second term. Instead, he pointed to his other plans to deport immigrants and lower inflation as solutions to the housing crisis. Housing policy is mainly set at the state and local level and hasn’t been a major focus of previous presidential elections in recent history.
Carl Alves, a housing advocate and CEO of the anti-addiction nonprofit PAACA, said he has more questions than answers right now.
Alves helps lead the region’s network of homeless service providers, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, a part of the executive branch.
“There’s a lot of unknowns, and any transfer of leadership takes a while for things to change,” he said. “Beyond [2025], we’ll probably see more restrictions.”
Alves wasn’t sure what those restrictions might look like because Trump has been so vague about his housing plans. The nonprofit leader didn’t know off the top of his head how local funding levels under the first Trump administration compare to the current levels under President Joe Biden.
Alves said that no matter who is president, he would work with the federal government to continue to address the city’s severe housing and homelessness crises. He said he’s open to proposals from either side of the aisle.
New Bedford City Councilor Shane Burgo, who chairs the council’s housing committee, said he had not hoped for a Trump victory. He expressed concern about Project 2025, a conservative blueprint that calls for a massive restructuring of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and rollback of its programs. Trump has distanced himself from the plan.
Burgo said he would fight against any effort to dismantle the federal housing department.
“My commitment to affordable housing and protections for marginalized groups remains steadfast, and I will work tirelessly to ensure our community’s needs are met, regardless of federal changes,” he wrote in a text to a Light reporter on Wednesday.
Paul Chasse, CEO of the REALTOR Association of Southeastern Massachusetts, said he expects that the end of the election cycle will help loosen the region’s tight housing market — that’s because market data showed a slowdown in new listings in recent months, possibly because would-be homebuyers were waiting to see who would win.
“I expect now that the election is over, there will probably be more properties listed and more transactions,” he said.
But it’s too soon to tell how Trump’s victory will affect homebuyers in the longer term, Chasse said. Neither party gave enough specifics on their plans for him to judge the potential impacts.
Still, Chasse said he looked forward to working with new state and federal leaders from across the political spectrum to stabilize housing prices. He said housing policy at the federal level has historically been bipartisan.
“I do believe that there is consensus around the country that more development is sorely needed to bring competition back,” he said.
Email housing reporter Grace Ferguson at gferguson@newbedfordlight.org.
This is easy, Trump gets inaugurated on January 20, the mass deportation of all illegal immigrants begins on January 21 with many illegal immigrants living on the south coast, and as they’re removed from the area and the rest of America, plenty of apartments become available. I’m sure the majority of people moving in will make the city a worse place to live with most of the housing being filled the the growing welfare class. section 8, and single welfare mothers with their live in drug dealing, or unemployed alcoholic, drug addicted boyfriends.
When I decide to leave New Bedford for the suburbs within two years, if I don’t sell my home, I’ll rent it, but only to people with a credit score of 700 or higher, verified income from employment, and negative drug test by everyone over 18, I’m pretty confident there won’t be many qualified applicants, so I’ll probably sell it instead. New Bedford will never be the great community it was 30 years ago, I can’t wait to leave.
You have to keep in mind that the ‘Homeless’ population/community is only without a home because they cannot find a nice little bungalow or a comfortable apartment to live in and therefore are compelled to live outside in filthy squalor injecting powerful, illegal drugs washed down with copious amount of alcohol. Most of these folks were software engineers and because of ‘Trump’ or ‘republicans’ or something ..they lost employment and now spend their days laying in their own urine with puke running out of their mouths.
However, the ‘unhoused’ have been elevated to a noble citizen class by the many ‘advocate’ groups that always populate dying cities such as New Bedford …and who fail to see the irony of their misguided activism or more likely, continue to grift the tax dollars that flow into non-profits that are part of.
I’ll sleep much better tonight knowing New Bedford City Councilor Shane Burgo has assured us that he’ll fight any effort President Trump, and the Republican majority in the House and Senate make to change the Federal Housing & Urban Development Department beginning in 2025, I’m certain his influence in the White House, and Congress will be a deciding factor on how the Federal government functions following the negative impact his fellow liberal Democrats, and the Biden administration in every aspect of American life….LOL