University of Michigan experts are available to comment on the impact of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, scheduled to become law at the end of July 10 unless President Trump vetoes it.
Jonathan Hanson, lecturer of public policy, explores the roles of democracy and state capacity in human development, why authoritarian regimes vary in economic and social outcomes, how the spatial distribution of ethnic group populations interacts with political institutions to affect public service delivery, and how to measure state capacity.
"Trump wanted to use the housing bill as leverage to get Senate Republicans to pass the so-called SAVE America Act, which seeks to raise the burdens on voters to exercise their right to vote and give the federal government a much bigger role in elections," Hanson said. "Affordability of things like housing, however, is a major issue in this year's elections, and a Trump veto of the bipartisan housing bill would be politically damaging for Republicans. In the end, he backed down and will allow the bill to be law without his signature. It was a poorly chosen threat."
Sam Stragand is the senior program manager for the Detroit Partnership on Economic Mobility at U-M's Poverty Solutions research initiative. He can comment on the potential impact of the housing act for Detroiters with low incomes.
"The act's emphasis on the streamlining of permitting, the liberalization of zoning and the production of housing will have the most impact on market-rate and near-market-rate housing," Stragand said. "While these federal policy changes will probably lead to some new housing in Detroit, Detroiters' low incomes mean that the Detroit housing market will need more assistance at deeper levels of affordability to meaningfully improve the supply of housing that's affordable to everyday Detroiters."
