Bloomberg: As Trump Reshapes Housing Policy, Renters Face Rollback of Rights

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Bloomberg: As Trump Reshapes Housing Policy, Renters Face Rollback of Rights

May 8, 2025—Bloomberg Reporter Patrick Sisson spoke with Public Advocates’ Director of Strategic Campaigns, Liz Ryan Murray, regarding the Trump administration’s proposed significant cuts to housing assistance and renter protections, including a 40% reduction in HUD rental aid and the elimination of the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing standard. She discussed challenges ahead for renters, with fewer resources to prevent evictions and more landlords willing to bend the rules. Liz discusses the impact of these federal policies on states and local jurisdictions, particularly on conservative states limited by preemption.

“Those forces are feeling emboldened, not just by the rhetoric coming out of the Trump administration, but the actual regulations,” said Ryan Murray.

Public Advocates’ Murray is less enthusiastic about the notion of replacing federal rental assistance with local alternatives. That concept grew out of a HUD demonstration program called Moving to Work, she said, which was launched in 1996; data on these trials was “damning,” with jurisdictions that participated in the program serving significantly fewer families.

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Newsweek: California Housing Market Could Change Under New Bill

Even in cities building housing at scale, lower-income renters are being left behind and paying more. Newsweek reports on Public Advocates' co-sponsorship of SB 1091, a bill that would convert existing market-rate units into long-term affordable homes—putting state resources directly in the hands of the communities hardest hit by decades of redlining and disinvestment.

SF GATE: Calif.’s newest homelessness solution is letting college kids sleep in their cars

Public Advocates' Director of Legislative Affairs Michelle Pariset, speaks to the Sacramento Bee about this year's unusually hard advocacy to get stronger protections for renters in the most expensive state to rent, particularly as legislators speak out about making affordability concerns top priority.