The Trump administration on Thursday criticized liberal metropolitan cities such as San Francisco and New York City for having burdensome housing regulations that have caused home prices and homelessness to rise.
In the annual report of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, President Trump’s economists argued that a failure to meet the demand for affordable housing in big cities had caused strain for their residents.
“The excessive regulatory barriers placed on building housing in these 11 metropolitan areas cause economic distress to their current and potential residents,” officials said in the report, referring to the metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Honolulu, Oxnard, Los Angeles, San Diego, Washington, Boston, Denver, New York City, Seattle, and Baltimore.
“In addition to restricting the ability of property owners to use their property in reasonable ways, these regulations increase costs for both renters and those trying to buy a home,” the report added.
Housing issues were highlighted as one of the key obstructions to economic growth for the country. The administration specified in the report that regulations imposed by state and city governments, including rent and zoning restrictions, environmental regulations, historic preservation requirements, and building codes.
The report also argued that the housing regulatory barriers in these cities were exacerbating homelessness.
“As estimated by the CEA (2019), relaxing excessive regulatory barriers in these 11 metropolitan areas where housing supply is significantly constrained would reduce homelessness by an average of 31% in these areas,” according to the report.
The White House report said that, for example, homelessness would fall by 54% in San Francisco, 40% in Los Angeles, and 23% in New York if the housing regulatory barriers were relaxed.
Since these metropolitan areas make up 42% of the U.S. homeless population, homelessness would fall by 13% in the United States overall if each city sufficiently addressed its regulatory barriers, the report said.
