PROMOTING AFFORDABLE HOUSING

VIA ZONING REFORM

Aaron Shroyer is a senior advisor with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Office of Policy Development & Research.

Aaron Shroyer is a senior advisor with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Office of Policy Development & Research.

“It’s clear that in cities there is downtown and areas where job centers are and these are the hubs of economic activity. 

But you look at how most of these big cities are zoned, they reserve an outsized portion of their land for single-family housing,” he said.

 “It sets an artificial cap on the number of people who can live there and the number who can live near the jobs. [People] pay a higher rent because the scarcity of housing.”

Shroyer said cities and the early suburbs had a mix of housing types, then areas were downzoned to allow only single-family houses, often on large lots.

 “That affordable housing stock is illegal to build in most cities, so it’s important to re-legalize it,” he noted.