A Message from NAAHL President & CEO: Lessons Learned from the First Year of the Trump Administration
January 20, 2026
To Our Members and Partners,
As we reflect on the first year of the new Trump Administration, it’s evident that the housing sector faces unprecedented challenges and changes -- and that housing stands at the forefront of national discourse. It is no longer a footnote in discussions about infrastructure or a mere component of broader economic policies. As families across the country voice their concerns about the rising cost of rent and the challenge of finding affordable homes for purchase, state and local governments have introduced a record number of housing bills. This energy has bubbled up to the national level: initiatives aimed at restoring the American Dream of homeownership and boosting the supply of affordable rental housing are driving the national conversation – and recent and likely future elections – like never before.
Lessons Learned from the First Year of the Trump Administration
We Must Continue to Demonstrate the “Jenga Effect.” 2025 included the longest federal government shutdown and unprecedented disruptions to Congressionally appropriated funding, as well as the most substantial gains for affordable housing and community development tax policies in decades. In short, tax solutions advanced while appropriations stalled. The passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) included permanent improvements and expansions to the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) and Opportunity Zones and a permanent extension of the New Markets Tax Credit. By making permanent increases in LIHTC, this legislation could support the construction or preservation of an additional 1.2 million affordable homes over the next ten years. But we know that many LIHTC deals pair with HOME, rental assistance, and other critical HUD funding – and so when pieces of the capital stack are in jeopardy, like Jenga, the whole pipeline is at risk of collapse.
LIHTC advocacy efforts, led by many of our members and supported by NAAHL, also proved that when policy solutions have bipartisan support, they are best positioned to advance under various political extremes, including through party-line bills. Other essential housing programs and policies need that same support to unlock the full potential of the LIHTC expansion.
Bipartisan Momentum for Housing is Growing. We are seeing unprecedented energy behind bipartisan housing legislation, including the ROAD to Housing Act in the Senate and the Housing for the 21st Century Act in the House. Both housing packages passed their respective committees with overwhelming bipartisan support. While we were disappointed that a bipartisan housing package wasn’t included in the year-end defense bill (NDAA), the bicameral, bipartisan interest in housing legislation makes us optimistic for a 2026 package. Both housing packages included provisions to raise banks’ Public Welfare Investment (PWI) cap from 15% to 20%, a key NAAHL priority proposed this year in the bipartisan Community Investment and Prosperity Act. This change is vital; it allows banks to invest more of their capital into community development and affordable housing projects, unlocking billions in private funds to boost public investments. There’s no silver bullet when it comes to solving the housing crisis, but it turns out, there’s a lot we can agree on across the aisle.
Affordability is the Word of the Moment. While more housing supply is how we lower costs over time, elected officials feel more pressure than ever to address affordability in the short-term. This temporal constraint is a key policy tension. The Trump Administration is preparing to take administrative actions to provide short-term relief, but those actions tend to reach a relatively smaller subset of households than broader legislative solutions like the bipartisan Neighborhood Homes Investment Act. NAAHL will continue to weigh in as the Administration attempts to thread this needle of delivering short-term affordability wins and following up with long-term solutions.
The Housing Sector Must Adapt to a Shrinking Government. Over the past year, there have been significant decreases in staff, including senior policy and programmatic experts, at federal agencies that directly relate to NAAHL’s work, including the banking regulators, HUD, USDA, and Treasury. This loss of expertise and capacity presents immediate hurdles for the industry. NAAHL highlighted these risks in our 2025 report, The Real Cost of Cuts, emphasizing that core programs for our industry, such as those administered by the CDFI Fund, require fully staffed and funded agencies to function. But this cycle of disruption also forces us to rethink how the federal government carries out its core duties.
Looking Ahead to 2026
For NAAHL and our members, 2025 and the first year of the Trump Administration marked a year of significant evolution as we adjusted to new challenges, uncertainty, and opportunities. As we transition into the new year, it is vital for this Administration and Congress to convey a strong commitment to affordability, recognizing that housing remains a top expense for many households. The coming year offers numerous opportunities to reinforce this message, whether through executive actions, a bipartisan housing package, a potential second reconciliation bill, or FY26 and FY27 funding.
Drawing from our work in 2025, NAAHL will remain dedicated to educating and engaging policymakers on both sides of the aisle on essential housing policies and programs, while also serving as a thought leader and advocate for innovative federal solutions that respond to the challenges we face.
Together, we will strive to ensure that affordable housing is not just a vision, but a shared reality for all.