Okay, today it’s back to a different topic (but one I still obsess over a lot) – housing affordability and zoning reform.  You can tell the issue is really getting into the mainstream of political thought when the feds continue to pile on, which happened yesterday.

Yesterday, the White House released its Housing Supply Action Plan to address what it calls the “housing supply gap.”  The plan is intended to solve the problem in five years!

The plan has a number of strategies to help increase the supply of affordable housing.  These strategies include:

• Rewarding jurisdictions that have reformed zoning and land-use policies with higher scores in certain federal grant processes
• Deploying new financing mechanisms to build and preserve more housing where financing gaps currently exist: manufactured housing, accessory dwelling units (ADUs), 2-4 unit properties, and smaller multifamily buildings
• Expanding and improving existing forms of federal financing, including for affordable multifamily development and preservation

The plan puts a large portion of responsibility for the housing supply shortfall on local land use policies:

One of the most significant issues constraining housing supply and production is the lack of available and affordable land, which is in large part driven by state and local zoning and land use laws and regulations that limit housing density. Exclusionary land use and zoning policies constrain land use, artificially inflate prices, perpetuate historical patterns of segregation, keep workers in lower productivity regions, and limit economic growth.  Reducing regulatory barriers to housing production has been a bipartisan cause in a number of states throughout the country. It’s time for the same to be true in Congress, as well as in more states and local jurisdictions throughout the country.

How to change this?  The plan designates several ways:

…this year, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) released three funding applications for competitive grant programs totaling nearly $6 billion in funding that reward jurisdictions that have put in place land-use policies to promote density and rural main street revitalization with higher scores in the grant process. Today, the Administration is announcing that DOT will continue to include language encouraging locally driven land use reform, density, rural main street revitalization, and transit-oriented development in BIL and other transportation discretionary grant programs.

Over the coming year and before its next round of grants, EDA will add language to its investment priorities to encourage economic development projects that enhance density in the vicinity of the development.

Other actions proposed include:

a number of states and local jurisdictions have made land-use changes to permit the construction and renovation of ADUs, which can offset the cost of homeownership while expanding the supply of affordable rental housing. According to a recent independent analysis, these kinds of state and local reforms – when combined with policies to improve financing options – could lead to the creation of more than 1 million ADUs in the next five years. In addition to zoning and land use changes, achieving that goal will require simpler and more affordable financing options for homeowners and builders. To that end, FHA and FHFA are exploring avenues to help lenders pilot and scale renovation and construction financing for ADUs—particularly for low- and moderate-income homeowners – in addition to new financing options for other single-family renovations and for 2-4-unit rehabilitation.

It’s an ambitious plan, with lots of parts, programs, and pieces.  It’s worth a read to see where emphasis is being placed from the federal level.