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Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
Renee M. Willis, media@nlihc.org, (202) 662-1530 x247
Jessica Elle Rosa, jrosa@housingcenter.com, (203) 649-6553
New data released today in the National Housing Preservation Database (NHPD) shows that nearly 500,000 federally-assisted apartments or rental homes will reach the end of their current subsidy contracts and affordability restrictions for low-income families in the next five years. Nearly one in four of these units are funded by Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC). Previous experience suggests that as many as 8% (or 39,066) of these units could be permanently lost from the publicly-assisted and affordable housing stock, because their current owners could opt for the private market. President Trump's proposed budget cuts to rental programs managed by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) could potentially result in even more rental homes being lost due to insufficient funding.
The NHPD supports affordable housing preservation efforts by giving users the information they need to create strong plans for the preservation of publicly-assisted housing. Recently updated, the database allows users to estimate the size of the affordable housing stock in local areas and identify properties at risk of leaving the publicly-assisted housing stock, and develop preservation strategies.
Failing to preserve our nation's publicly-assisted affordable housing stock will further hurt the nation's lowest-income families at a time of unprecedented need. According to research by the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC), the nation already has a shortage of 7.4 million homes for extremely low-income renters. Failing to preserve the publicly-assisted affordable housing stock will also cost more money in the long-run. The Public and Affordable Housing Research Corporation (PAHRC) recently noted that the cost to rebuild and maintain these lost homes would be $6.4 billion over 50 years, compared to $4.8 billion to preserve and maintain the already-existing homes for 50 years.
NLIHC's CEO and President, Diane Yentel, noted that "we cannot afford to lose any of the federally-assisted housing stock. The rental housing crisis is hitting the lowest-income renters particularly hard, while federal resources for new subsidized housing is insufficient. Maintaining our current stock is critical."
The PAHRC and the NLIHC collaborate to produce the NHPD with support from HAI Group. Since its inception, the NHPD has provided more than 5,000 housing advocates, community leaders, affordable housing developers, researchers, and other housing-related stakeholders, access to an inventory of federally-assisted housing across the US that integrates information from multiple federal databases to help users identify affordable housing at-risk of being lost from the subsidized housing stock.
"HAI Group is proud to support the work PAHRC and NLIHC do when they join forces to enhance the NHPD," said HAI Group's President and CEO, Ed Malaspina. "The research is imperative to our members, as well as their advocates, developers, and other entities in the affordable housing community. Our members cannot afford to lose any of their stock, let alone the 488,332 units that are projected to be at risk of loss in the next five years. This is why we need to recognize the dire need to create sustainable plans for the preservation of housing."
To locate the federally-assisted rental properties approaching their expiration date, users can register for the NHPD, view an interactive map, and access preservation profiles by state and summary reports by county.a
The National Low Income Housing Coalition is dedicated solely to ending America's affordable housing crisis. Established in 1974 by Cushing N. Dolbeare, NLIHC educates, organizes and advocates to ensure decent, affordable housing within healthy neighborhoods for everyone. NLIHC provides up-to-date information, formulates policy and educates the public on housing needs and the strategies for solutions.
"In its eagerness to short-circuit reactor safeguards, the Trump administration is once again doing what it does best—demonstrating a complete disregard for the law," said the head of Beyond Nuclear.
A coalition of advocacy groups on Monday took aim at President Donald Trump's nuclear power plans, including a recently proposed rule that would allow developers using federally approved reactor designs to bypass required safety reviews, which the organizations called "ill-advised and contrary to law."
"In its eagerness to short-circuit reactor safeguards, the Trump administration is once again doing what it does best—demonstrating a complete disregard for the law," said Linda Pentz Gunter, executive director of Beyond Nuclear, in a statement.
"But nuclear technology is too inherently dangerous to operate as an outlaw," she stressed. "Ignoring those dangers will put millions of Americans at risk of another catastrophic nuclear accident."
Beyond Nuclear and the Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS) have submitted multiple formal comments to the administration, on behalf of overlapping coalitions, blasting its ongoing nuclear policymaking, which has been guided by a series of executive orders signed by the president last May.
The first coalition comments focus on the US Department of Energy allowing firms that build experimental nuclear reactors to seek exemptions from legally required environmental reviews. That filing was submitted in early March, a month after DOE announced the "categorical exclusion for authorization, siting, construction, operation, reauthorization, and decommissioning of advanced nuclear reactors for inclusion in its National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) implementing procedures."
Then, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission last month unveiled a proposed rule to expedite NRC reviews of commercial nuclear power plant applications involving reactor designs already approved by DOE or the Department of Defense (DOD)—which Trump has dubbed the Department of War. That prompted more comments from Beyond Nuclear, NIRS, and allied groups last week.
"Along with the DOE's environmental 'free pass' policy, the whole 'expedited licensing' regime the administration is attempting to set up appears to be illegal," NIRS executive director Tim Judson, who co-authored the recent comments to the NRC, said Monday.
"The White House is trying to create a 'regulatory tunnel' around NRC's safety regulations," he warned. "That would mean DOE's biases and obviously false assumptions about the safety of nuclear power plants become the new normal, exposing the public to unacceptable dangers to our health and safety."
"And while the law allows the DOD to build its own nuclear reactors," Judson added, "it does not allow the NRC to skip safety reviews for civilian nuclear plants just because they use the same designs. The military routinely exposes its personnel to dangers that civilians are supposed to be protected from."
The coalition's latest filing details how the administration's actions are "inconsistent" with the Administrative Procedure Act, Atomic Energy Act, Energy Reorganization Act, and NEPA, "as well as the constitutional requirement for due process in a democratic society." It also emphasizes that nothing in Trump's orders "can excuse" the alleged legal violations.
"Fifty years ago, the Atomic Energy Commission was abolished because they became too much of a promoter and lost the confidence of Congress and the public over safety," Paul Gunter, director of the reactor oversight project at Beyond Nuclear, explained Monday.
"The NRC was established to provide a regulator that prioritizes safety and is obligated not to take shortcuts for a production agenda," he continued. "Instead, half a century later, we are on the same dangerous collision course, casting aside the NRC in favor of the DOE, which doesn't have the experience or the staff to get the industry in line with safety and security. This capitulation to the Trump agenda could lead to the NRC being abolished altogether, because nobody will have confidence in them."
"This week, Republicans will spend their time trying to get taxpayers to fund Trump’s parties," said Sen. Chris Murphy.
Even as US consumer sentiment hits record lows, gas prices remain stuck above $4.50 per gallon, and millions of Americans face cuts to basic assistance, Republicans in the US Senate are going to try to pass a massive spending bill that includes $1 billion for President Donald Trump's proposed luxury ballroom.
As Punchbowl News reported on Monday, Senate Democrats are planning to put the ballroom project in the spotlight and make supporting it as uncomfortable as possible for their Republican colleagues.
In a letter sent to fellow Democrats, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) slammed the GOP for giving priority to the president's vanity project amid economic suffering caused by his policies.
"At a time when Americans can't make ends meet, Republicans say 'Let them eat cake,'" Schumer wrote, "and then hand Trump a billion dollars to build a ballroom to serve it in. Americans do not need a ballroom. They need relief."
Schumer went on to blast his GOP colleagues as "Ballroom Republicans" who are "asking working families to pay the price while Donald Trump pockets the perks."
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) similarly drew a contrast between the economic pain being felt by Americans with Trump's desire for a luxury ballroom to be constructed at taxpayers' expense.
"Gas is over $6 a gallon in many places," Murphy wrote in a social media post. "Farms are going bankrupt. Billions are being wasted on a war that’s making us weaker. And this week, Republicans will spend their time trying to get taxpayers to fund Trump’s parties."
Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.), the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee, said that the proposed ballroom "perfectly sums up what Trump really cares about," noting that "while Americans are paying more for gas and millions are losing their healthcare, Trump can only think of his vanity ballroom."
During a Monday appearance on MS NOW, Boyle said "there is no way in hell I am going to vote for $1 billion of taxpayer money to a stupid, unnecessary ballroom," and vowed to reverse the cuts to Medicaid that Republicans made last year with their budget law. The cuts are projected to result in 10 million Americans losing their insurance.
"There is no way in hell I am going to vote for $1 billion of taxpayer money to a stupid, unnecessary ballroom that is nothing but a vanity project for Donald Trump." @CongBoyle pic.twitter.com/jgRUpuN7h8
— Progressive Caucus (@USProgressives) May 11, 2026
\According to Punchbowl News, congressional Republicans behind the scenes have been quietly pleading with leadership to remove funding for the ballroom from the budget bill, as they think voting to fund the president's project would be politically toxic for them this fall.
"The ballroom security money is the biggest problem for the reconciliation bill, and it caught lots of GOP lawmakers off guard," Punchbowl News explained. "Moderate Republicans in both chambers are privately raising objections, bristling at the political downside of blessing Trump’s controversial ballroom project."
The Trump administration is apparently aware of Republicans' objections, and Punchbowl News' Laura Weiss reported on Monday that the White House is dispatching Secret Service Director Sean Curran to address lawmakers' concerns during a Tuesday luncheon.
Weiss noted that Republicans in swing districts "are privately balking at the reconciliation money for securing" the ballroom, but added that the Trump administration "really wants it."
“I left behind me thousands of Palestinian prisoners—children, women, and men," said Saif Abu Keshek after he and Thiago Ávila were released by Israel without charges.
As the final two Global Sumud Flotilla members violently abducted at sea by Israeli forces last month made their way home following their release without charge, one of the activists said Sunday that the world must remember the thousands of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
Saif Abu Keshek and Thiago Ávila—whom Israel accused of having links to Hamas, without providing evidence—were seized in international waters off the coast of Greece during the night of April 29-30. They were among the roughly 175 people aboard the flotilla, which was attempting to break the decadeslong Israeli blockade of Gaza and deliver humanitarian aid to its people amid an ongoing genocide.
After suffering abuse that allegedly included broken ribs, noses, and other injuries, all of the flotilla members except Abu Keshek and Ávila were released. The pair was taken to Israel for further interrogation. Israel twice extended their detention for further interrogation, which, according to their legal representatives, included physical and psychological abuse amounting to torture. The men reportedly went on a hunger strike to protest their detention.
United Nations officials, Brazil, and Spain all called for the pair's release. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva condemned their detention as "a serious affront to international law."
As Abu Keshek—a Spanish-Swedish national of Palestinian origin—arrived in Greece on Sunday following his deportation from Israel, he implored the world to remember the suffering of Palestinians imprisoned for their physical and intellectual resistance to Israeli oppression.
"I left behind me thousands of Palestinian prisoners—children, women, and men," he said in Athens. "I am sure that the treatment I faced does not compare to the suffering they are going through, the testimonies we hear of their torture, of their violation on a daily basis. We have to continue mobilizing. We cannot forget the Palestinian prisoners.”
Ávila, meanwhile, transited through Egypt en route to his native Brazil after his deportation. He is expected to arrive in São Paulo on Monday afternoon. Ávila's mother, Teresa Regina de Ávila e Silva, died while he was held in Israel.
Global Sumud Flotilla issued a statement following the activists' release, which it called "a victory over Israel’s attempts to criminalize the flotilla movement and smear international solidarity with Palestine as 'terrorism.'"
"If Israel had any evidence to support its outrageous accusations that the flotilla was affiliated with Hamas or engaged in unlawful activity, Thiago and Saif would not be released without charges," the statement says. "Their release further exposes these claims for what they are: politically motivated propaganda aimed at justifying violence against civilian flotilla participants and suppressing growing global resistance to Israel’s genocide and settler-colonial violence."
"However, their release underscores a painful reality: Thiago and Saif had governments, diplomatic channels, and international visibility advocating for them," Global Sumud Flotilla stressed. "Millions of Palestinians living under brutal Israeli occupation have no such political protection. More than 10,000 Palestinians remain imprisoned in Israeli dungeons and torture camps, subjected to starvation, abuse, isolation, medical neglect, sexual assault, and other cruel and degrading treatment, without international intervention or accountability."
Other Palestine defenders also used the activists' release to draw attention to the plight of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
"We insist that the global mobilization for the release of Saif and Thiago must not stop but must instead grow for the liberation of all Palestinian prisoners jailed by the Zionist regime," said Samidoun, also known as the Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, "as well as Lebanese and Arab prisoners detained in its prisons, as well as the Palestinian prisoners and the prisoners for Palestine held in imperialist prisons around the world."