Michigan U.S. Senator Elissa Slotkin says the country needs a radical new approach to promote affordable housing. Her solution: a bill that would have President Donald Trump declare a national housing emergency, and invoke the Defense Production Act to increase the supply of domestic construction materials.
Slotkin, a Democrat, introduced her National Housing Emergency Act last week. In addition to declaring a housing emergency, it aims to alleviate a national housing shortage by boosting “domestically produced materials to support the construction and rehabilitation of housing, [and] push states and localities to cut red tape currently standing in the way of building middle class housing.”
In a video posted on social media, Slotkin said the country is currently short four million housing units. But she said home builders have been reluctant to meet demand, in part because of what she calls burdensome local zoning regulations.
Slotkin said her legislation would address that in part by punishing communities who don’t remove those regulations by denying them certain federal funds.
“No matter how you do it, you have to be showing that you are adding units in your community in order to qualify for a bunch of federal programs on infrastructure and transportation,” she said. The bill would also prevent local communities from imposing new rules it deems a “burden” on housing construction for the duration of the emergency.
Slotkin admitted the legislation is likely to draw opposition from some quarters, but said the moment calls for drastic measures.
“It'll be controversial. Not everyone will like it,” she said. “But when you're in the middle of an emergency, you can't make everybody happy.”
The bill calls for the housing emergency to end either after the country has added or rehabbed four million housing units, or in late 2031.
