For decades following his presidency, Jimmy Carter used his own hands and tools to help build or improve 4,447 homes for impoverished people around the globe.
In 1990, he and his wife, Rosalynn, joined in a weeklong cross-border initiative with thousands of other volunteers to build 100 homes in Tijuana and San Diego’s Encanto neighborhood.
His involvement with Habitat for Humanity boosted the once low-profile Georgia-based organization to universal recognition. Before Carter, Habitat had a few thousand volunteers. By 2022, the organization said there were more than 7 million and it now has an annual budget of $360 million.
Carter couldn’t emphasize the importance of housing enough, and he led by example. Many individuals followed. Regrettably, many institutions did not.
It would be nice, in the wake of the president’s death on Dec. 29, to say he left a legacy of convincing the United States to make providing homes and shelter for all its people a top priority. That isn’t the case.
Just two days before Carter died, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development released data showing homelessness nationwide continued its march upward to record levels — an increase of 18.1 percent in 2024.
“When I was in the White House, of course many years ago, public housing was a major commitment,” Carter told U.S. News & World Report in 2018. “And we had some of our key congressional committee assignments to provide housing for people in your own district. It was one of the most effective things you could do [as a congressman].
“But nowadays . . . public housing has a much lower priority in the federal government than it did before.”
The burden of housing and homelessness has largely fallen to the states and local jurisdictions, though they do get federal funding for both. Regardless, the picture remains bleak as state and local officials struggle with not only rising homelessness, but keeping track of where the billions of dollars are being spent and how effective that spending has been.
Blake Nelson of The San Diego Union-Tribune recently reported that the overall cost of homelessness in the county is unknown — from direct spending on shelters to police involvement to health care and more.
Elected officials across the political spectrum in Sacramento have demanded more accountability, questioning whether all the spending has done much good.
Yet, some officials have found positives in some recent homeless counts, where the increases have been considerably lower than in previous years.
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office said California is “bucking the national trend by holding the statewide increase to 3 percent” — a lower rate than in 40 other states.
“We have turned the tide on a decades-long increase in homelessness — but we have more work to do,” the governor said in a statement.
State Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones, R-Santee, had a different take.
The “HUD report makes it clear that instead of solving the problem, Newsom’s endless spending ‘solution’ has only made it worse,” Jones said in a statement.
Months after the annual, federally-mandated homeless count confirmed lower growth in San Diego, there was another blip of positive news. More homeless residents got into homes in November than the number of people who became homeless, according to the Regional Task Force on Homelessness.
That’s the first month that has happened in 2 1/2 years.
But storm clouds loom.
Budget cuts and disagreements over how to spend limited resources are impacting programs that deal with homelessness. A large, expensive shelter proposed by Mayor Todd Gloria has faced stiff opposition, not just from its potential Middletown neighbors but others who contend there are better alternatives.
The San Diego Housing Commission is halting rental vouchers for new low-income housing projects, according to the Voice of San Diego. Such rental assistance and other direct aid are widely seen as the most cost-effective way of keeping people from falling into homelessness.
A shortage of affordable housing is a main driver of homelessness, however. Beyond subsidized projects, the price of market-rate housing continues to be out of reach for people of means who in previous generations likely would be able to buy homes. And there appears to be little relief on the horizon.
In 2023, San Diego County saw more housing construction than in each of the previous 17 years. But officials warned that the spike, particularly regarding affordable housing, may not become a trend.
Meanwhile, state and local legislation to encourage more housing have not produced the hoped-for result in the face of tough market forces and other hurdles.
The federal government may have been more committed to housing during Carter’s one term, 1977-81, but homeownership was also unattainable for many, but not because of a housing shortage. The nation’s economy was brutalized by double-digit inflation in the second half of his administration.
Mortgage rates were otherworldly, peaking at 16.64 percent in 1981, according to Bankrate.com.
President-elect Donald Trump’s prescription for more housing is to free up units by deporting millions of undocumented immigrants, open up federal lands for homebuilding and boost the already-strong economy to lower interest rates. Those plans have doubters, and many economists say his promise of high tariffs on foreign countries and mass deportation may trigger an economic downward spiral.
Everyone may agree homelessness and housing are big problems, but there’s not much momentum for a concerted national effort to address them.
Few presidents, in office or out, would be seen in a ball cap and wearing a tool belt while swinging a hammer to build a house, except maybe for a photo op. Carter did it for years hoping to spur the country into larger action.
It was not a wasted effort, but an opportunity missed.
What they said
Gallup poll via Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) of NBC News.
“84% of US adults support requiring photo ID to vote (including majorities of Republicans, independents and Democrats).
“83% of US adults support requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote (including majorities of Republicans, independents and Democrats)”
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