Bryan DeHenau spends his days fixing other people’s roofs, yet he can’t afford to buy a home of his own. At age 38, he rents an apartment with his mom outside Detroit. His life story illustrates the American housing crisis — and suggests how to solve it.
“I’m just as much invested in this problem as anybody in this country,” DeHenau told me. “We just need more housing of every type.”
DeHenau started roofing as a teen in the 1990s. His high school teachers had urged everyone to go to college, but he was meeting high school dropouts making six figures in construction. In the early 2000s, he founded his own company — BCD Construction — specializing in roofs and siding. It was a boom time, and he was young and fit — and had a full bank account. Trouble began in 2006, when builders stopped paying him. By 2008, the whole industry unraveled, triggering a global financial crisis and deep recession. Almost overnight, builders were viewed as America’s greedy villains. Many quit the business forever.
In 2011, DeHenau’s mother’s home was foreclosed on. After years helping build houses, he couldn’t save his own. He left the keys on the front porch for the police to collect, and the moment changed him. He enrolled in college to learn about the economy and markets. By 2014, he was nearly done with his degree when his phone started ringing with urgent requests: “Can you fix my roof?” Money was tight. He dropped out of school and started climbing ladders again. But the industry had changed. It was almost impossible to get financing and difficult to find workers under 50 who were willing to repair roofs. The pandemic added more woes with supply shortages and soaring costs.
Since the Great Recession, America hasn’t been building enough homes. DeHenau has seen this up close: In the 2000s, he was mostly putting roofs on new homes. Today, he mostly repairs or replaces existing roofs. And he has studied the numbers. In 1972, when the U.S. population was just over 200 million, nearly 2.4 million new homes were built. Last year, only 1.4 million homes were added, for a population of 335 million. Realistically, at least 2 million new homes need to be built every year, DeHenau said, and ideally more. Many leading housing experts agree.
Single-family homes, townhouses, high-rise apartments — every kind of housing is needed. But the obstacles are immense. Small companies like DeHenau’s struggle to obtain financing and supplies. He has to warn customers that he might not be able to get their first choice of shingle color, so pick a backup. Meanwhile, bigger builders struggle to get permits because of zoning laws that favor McMansions.
For this picture to improve, Americans need to be sold on smaller homes and “cookie cutter” designs. DeHenau thinks Donald Trump can bring back both. After all, the president-elect’s talent is in marketing. He could say, for example, that it’s time to build Trump Towers across America, which would immediately make them sound desirable — even luxurious — in many communities.
“Trump can take anything from the left that the right hates and make it cool,” DeHenau said. “Call it ‘Trump housing’ and the right will like it.”
DeHenau is one of Michigan’s working-class residents who voted for Barack Obama and then Trump. When he’s not riding his snowmobile, he spends his free time on social media debating with professors and experts in D.C. about how to fix the housing crisis — acting as an intermediary between “elites” and blue-collar communities.
He knows it will take a sea change to get more Americans excited about high-rise apartments and condos. But he also knows that millions of renters like him desperately want to own something affordable. Cities such as Minneapolis that have changed their zoning laws to spur more building have seen an expansion of affordable housing in the form of high-rises.
It is also critical, he argues, to limit home designs to no more than 10 options. Standardization makes it easier to expedite the approval process, the supply chain and the construction. Everyone in the process know what to expect. The idea isn’t far-fetched. The Levittown homes built in the 1950s for White World War II veterans were small and standardized. The houses came in only a handful of designs.
“Some people may cry that this is communism. But is the current situation really better?” DeHenau asked. “We need to erect a lot of homes quickly.”
Trump has vowed to bring down mortgage rates (something presidents can’t do) and roll back regulations. But he also campaigned on preserving the American Dream of owning a single-family home.
DeHenau hopes the returning president will embrace a build-build-build plan that promotes all types of housing. Additional government financing or tax breaks to spur more building would be helpful.
There’s another reality the roofer sees on a daily basis: Many of America’s existing homes are old and falling apart.
“The housing stock we have is in terrible shape,” he said. “That’s why I’m busy.” Some of these homes won’t last much longer — and that will only make the housing shortage worse.
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