Trump Administration Threatens Housing for Millions in "War on the Poor"

Proposed cuts to Section 8 put 3.3 million people at risk of eviction and homelessness.

By Eleanor J. Bader , Truthout
Published September 22, 2025

If the federal government has its way, programs that provide housing subsidies to low-income people will soon be cut, and current recipients will have to comply with work rules and time limits on residency. Those who receive Section 8 subsidies are now facing draconian budget-slashing that will put millions in danger of losing their homes. These plans have long been on the right’s anti-poor wish list.

In fact, when the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 agenda was released in April 2023, it outlined a long list of ways to curtail benefits to the poor, from cuts to Medicaid and SNAP to defunding subsidized housing programs. Among other things, the multifaceted document recommended repeal of the 57-year-old Fair Housing Act, which prohibits landlords and building owners from discriminating against potential renters and home buyers “on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, family status, or national origin.” That particular suggestion was relatively new, but the right has for decades wanted to eliminate the Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS Program, and has advocated for the removal of undocumented people living in mixed-status households from public or subsidized housing. Right-wing politicians have also sought to impose work requirements and time limits on the receipt of Section 8 rental subsidies.

Scott Turner, a former NFL player tapped to run the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in February, made his contempt for Section 8 subsidies clear, telling a Newsweek reporter that “the taxpayer-funded vacation is over.” Indeed, the administration is working hard to decimate a host of social welfare programs — from SNAP, to Medicaid, to housing subsidies — and they’re using every tool at their disposal to do so.

Deborah Thrope, deputy director of the National Housing Law Project, told Truthout that after Congress failed to consolidate five federal housing programs, including Section 8, into a single State Rental Assistance Block Grant as requested by the president, the administration changed tactics to pursue a rules change. Announced this summer by the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the proposed discretionary rule to allow housing providers to impose work rules and time limits in all federal housing programs is a first step in a federal effort to cut the subsidized housing rolls.

https://truthout.org/articles/trump-administration-threatens-housing-for-millions-in-war-on-the-poor/

Let's create more homeless people.