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Folks (including me!) who are concerned about aff housing for people who experience homelessness / the lowest income households, don't miss what's happening at the local level on land use and zoning reforms.
The debate is so hot it's on 🔥 urban.org/urban-wire/how…
The debate is so hot it's on 🔥 urban.org/urban-wire/how…
Yes, poor people need housing subsidies to make the development of housing "pencil out" for developers.This will take a federal investment. A universal housing voucher program, as @JulianCastro proposed would be evidence-based awesomeness. Of course, we need aff production too.
But right now the laws that cover a large share of cities and suburbs, literally, do not allow developers to build apartments even if they wanted to. ICYMI check out this piece by https://www.nyti mes.com/section/upshot @emilymbadger
Zoning changes, including upzoning and by right development, would at least allow for different types of housing (triplexes, double deckers, garden-style apartments, etc.) and could increase supply for the lowest income households in several ways.
Higher and middle-income folks could move into the new housing and filter existing older stock to lower-income households. More NOAH!
There would be more units for people with vouchers to find and rent. More units for homeless service providers to rapidly re-house people leaving shelter.
Adding significantly more supply could help rents stabilize/reduce rents, which could stretch subsidy dollars further.
Allowing multi-family development = allowing the development of supportive housing units.
If you are working on ending homelessness, trying to prevent eviction, and/or creating more aff. housing for the lowest income households, insert yourself into the debate on land use and zoning.
Land use policies have had an enormous impact on our cities and our lives, allowing (or excluding) access to jobs and high-quality schools. These laws matter for racial equity too. We recently released an explainer for folks interested in learning more vimeo.com/336208270
p.s., I used a 🔥 emoji in a tweet. Is there a high five emoji?
