Erika D. Smith, Columnist

The War on HUD Will Make Housing Even Less Affordable

Americans are irate about high rents as well as sprawling homeless encampments. Slashing the housing agency won’t help any of it.

February 28, 2025 at 1:00 PM UTC

By Erika D. Smith

Erika D. Smith is a politics and policy columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. She is a former Los Angeles Times columnist and Sacramento Bee editorial board member.

Scott Turner, US secretary of Housing and Urban Development, appears ready to feed his own department into the wood chipper.
Photographer: Aaron Schwartz/Bloomberg

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In the few short weeks that Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has existed, it has wreaked havoc on the federal bureaucracy. Not only has it fired and traumatized government employees, it has needlessly jeopardized the critical programs and services that millions of Americans depend on — and pay for.

Up next? The US Department of Housing and Urban Development.