{"id":455761,"date":"2026-09-06T22:44:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T22:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/455761\/"},"modified":"2026-09-06T22:44:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T22:44:11","slug":"california-lawmakers-push-back-on-trumps-attack-on-renters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/455761\/","title":{"rendered":"California lawmakers push back on Trump’s attack on renters"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article<\/a> was produced by Capital & Main. It is published here with permission.<\/p>\n

California leaders and elected\u00a0officials have expended\u00a0an inordinate amount of energy<\/a>\u00a0trying to blunt the worst of some of President Donald Trump\u2019s second-term policies. This time around, they are attempting to head off one such policy before it\u2019s even implemented.<\/p>\n

In a countermove to proposed\u00a0rules changes<\/a>\u00a0by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, the state Legislature in August passed and sent to Gov. Gavin Newsom a\u00a0measure<\/a>\u00a0that forbids California housing authorities from imposing either work requirements or limits on how long low-income tenants can receive federal rental assistance.<\/p>\n

The proposed HUD changes would permit, but not require, local housing agencies to impose both work requirements and time limits on assistance. Assuming Newsom signs the bill, California will become the first state with a law expressly forbidding its housing agencies from imposing such requirements on tenants.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that these kinds of policies don\u2019t work,\u201d said Lila Gitesatani, a staff attorney at the National Housing Law project, which sponsored the California bill carried by Assemblymember Matt Haney (D-San Francisco).<\/p>\n

\u201cThe data\u00a0shows<\/a>\u00a0that work requirements and time limits at publicly funded safety net programs do not improve outcomes for recipients,\u201d Gitesatani said. \u201cThe [HUD] proposal would push more people \u2014 people who already have jobs, but are struggling to make ends meet \u2014 into homelessness.\u201d<\/p>\n

That will likely not stop HUD from implementing the rules, and then pressuring local housing authorities that regularly interact with the federal agency to fall in line, Gitesani said. That matters not only in California, where\u00a0more than 900,000<\/a>\u00a0people rely on federal housing assistance, but to residents in states in the\u00a0South, Appalachia and Northeast<\/a>, where HUD housing assistance is proportionally the most prevalent.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

There\u2019s little evidence\u00a0that tying public assistance to work requirements actually increases employment in an area or state. In fact, what data there is on the topic points\u00a0the other direction.<\/a><\/p>\n

But the HUD proposal falls right in line with other policies enacted by the Republican-led Congress under Trump\u2019s direction. The most prominent of those are the new requirements on Medicaid, which beginning in 2027 will force recipients to prove and document their work hours \u2014 and to requalify twice a year for benefits, where previously they had to enroll only once a year. (Medicaid is known in California as Medi-Cal.)<\/p>\n

\u201cHousing assistance was never meant to trap work-able individuals on government support their entire lives,\u201d HUD Secretary Scott Turner said in announcing the proposed changes in February. \u201cRather, it should be a temporary foundation to launch into a life of self-sufficiency.\u201d<\/p>\n

In truth, most people who receive HUD assistance are already working, if they can work. In 2024,\u00a065%<\/a>\u00a0of non-elderly, non-disabled households using HUD vouchers were working or had recently worked, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Many still don\u2019t earn enough to afford housing in their area, while some have irregular hours or work part time.<\/p>\n

The HUD programs assist such low-income households by giving them vouchers to help pay their rent (the most widely used form of assistance) or by placing them in public or subsidized housing. The housing agencies and private operators who control that housing are thus reliant on the federal authority for their funding.<\/p>\n

\u201cHousing authorities and other providers of HUD housing interact with HUD regularly,\u201d Gitesatani said. \u201cThey receive their funding from HUD. Because of that, we expect that they would be under significant political pressure from HUD to opt in to the work requirements and term limits \u2014 even here in California.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s reputation for\u00a0punishing states<\/a>\u00a0that didn\u2019t vote for him or later cross him is well documented, including denying funding for\u00a0clean energy efforts<\/a>\u00a0in California and elsewhere. So while the HUD rule would only be an allowance to impose restrictions, not a mandate, the idea that state housing agencies will be able to do as they please is naive.<\/p>\n

Many of them may feel pressured to do what they believe the Trump\u2019s administration wants \u2014 precisely what California\u2019s pending law aims to prevent.<\/p>\n

HUD officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Capital & Main.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Newsom, who has until\u00a0Sept. 30 to sign or veto the bill, has not publicly indicated whether he supports the California legislation. His office declined comment. Last summer, the governor\u00a0sharply criticized<\/a>\u00a0the Republican plan to slash Medicaid and food stamp funding and to condition eligibility on work and requalifying requirements.<\/p>\n

Without question, work requirements and limits on how long one can receive housing assistance would threaten the most vulnerable, in California and elsewhere. Funding from HUD by definition flows to some of the lowest-income households in any given area \u2014 often, those earning 50% or less of the median income where they live.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese cuts really hurt all of us, but they are targeting immigrants, Black people, poor people and people with disabilities,\u201d Gitesatani said. \u201cDespite our government having the resources to house families, they\u2019re choosing to defund HUD and ignore evidence-based solutions to house more people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though California is the only state to pass legislation prohibiting work requirements and term limits on HUD assistance, it\u2019s hardly the only one concerned about the proposed rule changes. Nineteen states, plus the District of Columbia,\u00a0wrote<\/a>\u00a0to Turner in May to oppose the plan.<\/p>\n

They can\u2019t stop Turner and HUD from putting the rules in place, as the agency has the authority to finalize them on its own. That makes the Golden State the outlier in forbidding implementation of those requirements \u2014 and, for now, the only state that is proactively pushing back against the Trump administration\u2019s efforts to push low-income tenants out of their federally subsidized homes.<\/p>\n

Capital & Main<\/a> is an award-winning nonprofit publication that reports from California on the most pressing economic, environmental and social issues of our time, including economic inequality, climate change, health care, threats to democracy, hate and extremism and immigration.\u200b<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Capital & Main<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This article was produced by Capital & Main. It is published here with permission. California leaders and elected\u00a0officials…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":455762,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,9500,68800],"class_list":["post-455761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-hud","tag-renters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=455761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}