By Mark Kreidler
Contributing Writer
LOS ANGELES — California leaders and elected officials have expended an inordinate amount of energy trying to blunt the worst of some of President Donald Trump’s second-term policies. This time around, they are attempting to head off one such policy before it’s even implemented.
In a countermove to proposed rule changes by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, the state Legislature in August passed and sent to Gov. Gavin Newsom a measure that forbids California housing authorities from imposing either work requirements or limits on how long low-income tenants can receive federal rental assistance.
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.
“We know that these kinds of policies don’t work,” said Lila Gitesatani, a staff attorney at the National Housing Law project, which sponsored the California bill carried by Assemblyman Matt Haney, D-San Francisco.
“The data shows that work requirements and time limits at publicly funded safety net programs do not improve outcomes for recipients,” Gitesatani said. “The [HUD] proposal would push more people — people who already have jobs, but are struggling to make ends meet — into homelessness.”
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 more than 900,000 people rely on federal housing assistance, but to residents in states in the South, Appalachia and Northeast, where HUD housing assistance is proportionally the most prevalent.
There is little evidence that tying public assistance to work requirements actually increases employment in an area or state. In fact, what data there is on the topic points in the other direction.
But the HUD proposal falls right in line with other policies enacted by the Republican-led Congress under Trump’s 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 — 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.)
“Housing assistance was never meant to trap work-able individuals on government support their entire lives,” HUD Secretary Scott Turner said in announcing the proposed changes in February. “Rather, it should be a temporary foundation to launch into a life of self-sufficiency.”
In truth, most people who receive HUD assistance are already working, if they can work. In 2024, 65% of 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’t earn enough to afford housing in their area, while some have irregular hours or work part time.
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.
“Housing authorities and other providers of HUD housing interact with HUD regularly,” Gitesatani said. “They 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 — even here in California.”
Trump’s reputation for punishing states that didn’t vote for him or later cross him is well documented, including denying funding for clean energy efforts in 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.
Many of them may feel pressured to do what they believe the Trump’s administration wants — precisely what California’s pending law aims to prevent.
HUD officials did not respond to a request for comment from Capital & Main.
Newsom, who has until Sept. 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 sharply criticized the Republican plan to slash Medicaid and food stamp funding and to condition eligibility on work and requalifying requirements.
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 — often, those earning 50% or less of the median income where they live.
“These cuts really hurt all of us, but they are targeting immigrants, Black people, poor people and people with disabilities,” Gitesatani said. “Despite our government having the resources to house families, they’re choosing to defund HUD and ignore evidence-based solutions to house more people.”
Though California is the only state to pass legislation prohibiting work requirements and term limits on HUD assistance, it’s hardly the only one concerned about the proposed rule changes. Nineteen states, plus the District of Columbia, wrote to Turner in May to oppose the plan.
They can’t 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 — and, for now, the only state that is proactively pushing back against the Trump administration’s efforts to push low-income tenants out of their federally subsidized homes.
Mark Kreidler writes for Capital & Main, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit publication focused on inequality. It is published here with permission.
