Finding ways to meet the challenge of affordable housing should begin at the local level. Efforts should focus on zoning reform, rental assistance, tenant-landlord relations, and targeted funding, among others.
Increasing the supply of affordable housing is important to prevent homelessness, displacement of longtime communities from gentrifying neighborhoods, and displacement of older residents who struggle to keep up with rising property taxes in rapidly appreciating areas.
Public service employees, police, fire personnel, and teachers are beginning to have problems finding affordable housing in the area and even in the region they work. We need to begin removing zoning barriers such as single-family exclusive zoning or lot size requirements.
In New England, where affordable housing has always been a problem, the NIMBY people (Not in my backyard) are taking legal action to keep their towns just like they have been for a hundred years by protesting multifamily affordable housing and low-income rental housing. Not sure where they want them to be built but I’m sure the people that work at their local stores and restaurants would love to have them built closer to their workplaces.
Increased density will allow for more housing to be built, increasing supply and putting downward pressure on costs and using HUD code housing would be a good start but it has to start at the local level. The NIMBY people may never understand why this is important but as enough residents in towns and cities become educated as to why affordable and low-income housing is important for the future and possibly the very survival of their towns and cities, we may see change begin.
Inadequate housing supply is an ongoing national challenge. Local governments and their state and federal partners have been developing wide-ranging strategies to build supply, preserve existing affordable units, and mitigate displacement and creative policymaking at the local level will be the key to addressing the issue of, and fallout from, the housing shortage.
