One year into President Donald Trump’s second term, the waves of policy change are reverberating in Wayne County. In Detroit, first-time homeowner Tamika Simley is trying to hold it all together, juggling mortgage payments, groceries, gas, and utilities on a budget that keeps getting tighter.
“You’re having to pick and choose between things, and you shouldn’t have to,” Simley said in an interview earlier this year. “Why should I have to choose between my rent or my mortgage and feeding my family?”
While Simley’s story is personal, it reflects a much broader struggle now facing thousands of Wayne County residents as federal policy shifts take hold.
Though some of the steepest cuts do not fully kick in until 2027, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA),
signed by President Trump in 2025, slashes funding and imposes stricter eligibility limits for SNAP and Medicaid. Combined withchanges to federal housing programs and increased housing costs, experts say strained budgets could affect housing stability for some Wayne County families.
Supporters of the OBBBA say the changes are intended to reduce federal spending, tighten eligibility requirements, and encourage workforce participation in public assistance programs.
But in a county where many rent and the poverty rate far exceeds the state average, local officials warn these federal cuts will force thousands of residents to make impossible choices to remain in stable housing. As Michigan heads into pivotal midterms, state and local governments are scrambling to fill the gaps left by the federal government.
Julie Cassidy, a senior policy analyst at the Michigan League for Public Policy focusing on the social determinants of health, cites the change in housing costs as a main concern − especially rising rent prices, as more than one-third of households rent in Wayne County compared to 27% statewide.
According to federal guidelines, housing is considered affordable if it costs no more than 30 percent of a household’s income. But in Wayne County, many are far beyond that limit.
“We consistently find in every community that renters are having to spend a lot more of their income on rent than homeowners do, and their housing costs are increasing more quickly. In Wayne, the median rent is 38 percent of the median household income,” said Cassidy.
U.S. Rep. Shri Thanedar, D-Detroit, who recently lost a bid for re-election in a district with one of the nation’s highest poverty rates, said earlier this year his constituents are acutely aware of how federal policy is hitting their pocketbooks.
Life has become more expensive in Trump's tenure, Thanedar said. "He says he’s going to work on lowering costs, and he talked about inflation. He said that he alone can fix all that, because he is such an economic genius. In reality, prices have gone up substantially, and housing costs have gone up."
While recent policy changes have intensified these problems, Thanedar acknowledges that many of Detroit’s challenges have deeper roots. “These are not all problems that happen under the Trump administration," he said, citing longstanding issues with things like public transportation and affordable housing.
Nick Cook, director of public policy at the Michigan Coalition Against Homelessness, warns that the impact of rising rents and reduced assistance will extend beyond immediate housing insecurity.
“It's going to impact their housing security; it's also going to impact their ability to keep jobs, which will then impact their ability to maintain housing. So it's really the second-order effect, we're seeing this maybe a year to two years down the line,” said Cook.
Cook said Michigan’s Housing Choice Voucher program is already under strain.
“The wait lists have been turned off for a couple of years now just because of the increasing cost of rentals. We’ve seen rent increase by 25 percent since 2020 in Michigan. So there are just not as many vouchers to go around. So it is hard to keep somebody stabilized and keep them in housing on top of the attacks,” Cook said.
Cook pointed out that the state now faces a shortage of 195,000 affordable units for low-income residents. Data from Wayne Metropolitan Community Action Agency’s 2026 Community Needs Assessment show that financial instability is widespread in the county, even among working families. Most surveyed households earn less than $50,000 a year, and nearly all respondents say high utility costs and covering basic needs are major challenges.
For Simley and others, these numbers translate into tough, daily decisions about what to pay for first, with utility payments, she said, an “outrageous” expense. When her daughter was first in college, Simley qualified for subsidized housing for a year, which made all the difference.
“It was great when I had it, because it kind of took some of the sweat off my brow, so to speak. I was able to, you know, afford groceries and things without worrying about, let me penny pinch here, and penny pinch there,” said Simley.
Cassidy said when families face budget constraints, they nearly always prioritize rent or mortgage payments, even if it means cutting back on groceries or skipping medical care. That’s become even more common as safety net programs come under strain.
With the One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s new restrictions taking hold, advocates worry that families already stretched thin will be forced to cut back even more on essentials like food in order to keep a roof over their heads. Additional federal changes are still ahead, including stricter eligibility redeterminations and more frequent income checks for programs like SNAP and Medicaid beginning in January 2027—raising concerns that more residents could lose coverage or assistance.
As the debate continues and changes loom, Detroit has often found itself thrust into the national political arena. In October 2024, Trump claimed that if Kamala Harris wins the presidency, “the whole country will end up being like Detroit.”
For Tamika Simley, those words miss the real story. “I think they need to drop him off on Mac and Bewick for about two weeks… Your music came from here. Your cars came from here, there’s a lot of firsts that came from Detroit,” said Simley.
This story was produced in partnership with the American Communities Project and Michigan State University.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: For low-income Michiganders, federal changes could land on housing
