Public housing and Section 8 rental assistance in America were created to give families a temporary helping hand in times of hardship, not to trap them in long-term dependency. Yet nearly half of non-elderly healthy households receiving aid from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) did not have a single person working in 2024. It’s time for change.
We got here because well-intentioned federal policies drifted from their original goals, leaving many people stuck in subsidized housing for years, sometimes decades, while millions of families remained on waiting lists without any help.
HUD’s proposed rule aims to correct this anomaly by restoring a simple, common-sense principle: HUD housing assistance should encourage work, self-sufficiency, and upward mobility while maintaining a strong safety net for the elderly and disabled. Under the Trump administration’s proposed regulations, healthy, able-bodied individuals would no longer be allowed to languish on welfare without any hope or dignity.
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Arkansas became the first state in the nation to bring work requirements to the forefront of state law after I, Governor Sanders, signed the Housing Welfare Reform Act of 2023 into law. This common sense law ensures that anyone who can work must work, train or volunteer if they have to live on taxpayers’ money. However, under current rules, housing authorities may not require work or limit time. Without HUD’s proposed rule, Arkansas will be unable to enforce the law on the books.
Public housing was never intended to be a hammock, but a springboard to a life of self-sufficiency. Federal housing assistance, as currently structured, discourages work and creates a long national waiting list for housing assistance for those who need assistance.
Capable adults who receive assistance are staying on welfare longer and longer. Recent evidence presented to Congress shows that nearly 90% of able-bodied recipients of Section 8 vouchers will spend more than five years in subsidized housing, and half will spend more than fifteen years. It is not unusual for multiple generations of a family to live in subsidized housing for decades. We must break this hopeless cycle.
There is extensive real-world evidence supporting work requirements and/or time limits for social housing benefits. Across the country, nearly 40 Moving to Work housing agencies have tested work requirements or time limits, showing America that these programs can change lives.
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This proposal would finally allow Arkansas to give all public housing agencies and Section 8 residents in the state the power to move toward self-sufficiency, as the law envisions.
Arkansas will be the example for more states to follow as the Trump administration gives state and local leaders, who best understand their residents and communities, the power to decide whether and how to implement these policies, within clear legal boundaries. There will no longer be a one-size-fits-all mandate from Washington.
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HUD estimates that under our proposal, between 19,000 and 79,000 families will move out of subsidized housing nationally in the first year, opening doors to new families in need. This is a win-win situation. The families who leave welfare will earn more, contribute more to their own rent and be on a more solid financial footing, while the families who finally receive assistance will get the help they have been waiting for for years.
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Most importantly, this is about dignity. Work is a path to meaning, independence and stability. Study after study shows that long-term unemployment affects well-being, worsens health, reduces life expectancy and harms children’s prospects. In contrast, when adults work, families are healthier, communities are stronger, and the future looks brighter. A rising tide lifts all boats
We believe in the potential of our fellow Americans. By restoring federal rental assistance to its intended role as temporary relief, we can help more American families build a better life and a better future.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders is the 47th governor of Arkansas.
