Habitat for Humanity CEO: Trump budget would be ‘devastating to affordable housing’

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April 4, 2017 8:11 PM

Habitat for Humanity CEO Jonathan Reckford says if Trump's budget passes, it will create catastrophic ripples across America's housing sector.

An abandoned home, left, in the impoverished Mantua section of Philadelphia, May 23, 2014.

In mid-March, the Trump administration released a partial outline of its 2018 budget, which proposes billions of dollars in funding cuts to most government agencies, including the department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

If Trump's budget passes, HUD is expected to lose approximately $6.2 billion next year a 13.2% change from 2016.

These deep cuts to HUD would exacerbate America's affordable housing crisis, according to Habitat for Humanity CEO Jonathan Reckford.

"If the White House budget were to become the actual budget — and we realize it's more of a political statement than a true budget — it would be devastating to affordable housing in the US," he tells Business Insider.

Founded in 1976, Habitat for Humanity is a nonprofit organization that has built over 8

"We already have a huge housing deficit, and so pulling back on federal funding and eliminating all those programs would ripple across the whole housing sector," Reckford says. "What we're going to see is, everywhere along the housing sector, more negative results if we disinvest from housing."

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