| May 17, 2019
The Legacy of Redlining Lives on Today Through Exclusionary Zoning
As many of you likely know, much of our modern municipal zoning regime was created after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down government-backed residential segregation in Buchanan v. Warley in 1917. While the Court found that explicit, government-backed laws preventing primarily African American citizens from purchasing property in predominantly white neighborhoods were unconstitutional, the following decades […]
| May 14, 2019
The Fifth Wave of Housing Advocacy
America’s approach to housing, and particularly affordable housing, has ebbed and flowed over the past century. The nation’s focus on housing policy has shifted based on contemporary housing and economic challenges, with corresponding legislation and institutions created to address those issues. From New Deal programs to President Bush’s ownership society, our governments’ relationship to housing […]
| May 7, 2019
Bringing the Housing Conversation to DC
Last week, members of Up for Growth Action were in the nation’s capital for our first annual DC Policy Summit and Legislative Advocacy Conference. We had two full days of meetings and presentations, and we also announced the public release of Up for Growth National Coalition’s newest research tool, the Housing Policy and Affordability Calculator. In our […]
| May 1, 2019
Up for Growth National Coalition Introduces Innovative Housing Policy and Affordability Calculator
WASHINGTON, DC – Up for Growth National Coalition unveiled its interactive Housing Policy and Affordability Calculator today during Up for Growth Action’s first annual Washington, DC Policy Summit. The first version of the calculator focuses on Seattle, allowing users to examine how various policy choices impact both likelihood of housing getting built and the affordability […]
| April 29, 2019
Boosting Washington State’s Housing Trust Fund
The State of Washington’s Housing Trust Fund was formed to develop and preserve affordable housing for low-income and vulnerable Washingtonians. Dollars from this fund are accessed to support a wide range of projects, serving people earning up to 80% of Area Medium Income. However, most of the program funding supports those with special needs or […]
| April 25, 2019
The Cautionary Tale of Portland’s Inclusionary Housing Policy
Earlier this month, the City of Portland released data on its two-year-old inclusionary housing policy through a flashy, self-congratulatory website touting the “success of Inclusionary Housing” in the city. For background, Portland’s inclusionary housing policy mandates that all multifamily projects over 20 units initiated after February of 2017 must set aside at least 20% of total […]
| April 5, 2019
Oregon’s Senate Bill 10 is a Transportation Bill, Not Just a Housing Bill
To leverage our public roads and infrastructure investments – generations and billions of dollars in the making – Up for Growth Action advocates for allowing more households to live near transit. One of the major factors limiting transit usage is that low-density zoning regulations restrict the number of houses that can be built in transit-served […]
| March 29, 2019
Enabling Communities to Address California’s Housing Crisis
There’s hardly a day that goes by without another story being written about the housing crisis in California. From the Bay Area all the way down to San Diego, and even in the Inland Empire and Central Valley, millions of Californians are cost-burdened, spending well over 30% of their gross income on housing costs. In fact, […]
| March 22, 2019
Housing 2020
Though the next Presidential election is nearly 20 months away, Decision 2020 is already in full swing. High-profile Democratic candidates are announcing election bids on a near-weekly basis, confirming that the size of the 2020 Democratic primary field will be historic. Diners in New Hampshire, living rooms in Iowa, and churches in South Carolina are […]
| March 15, 2019
Housing is the Environmental Issue of Our Time
Housing is, practically by definition, an environmental issue. Where we build housing says a lot about our views on and treatment of the land on which we live and how welcoming we are of all in every neighborhood. Yet “environmental policy” rarely addresses housing, despite it having a significant impact on land usage, vehicle emissions, […]
| March 8, 2019
It’s Not Just More Supply – Addressing Existing Housing Plays an Important Role in Curing America’s Broken Housing Ecosystem
Up for Growth National Coalition’s Housing Underproduction in the U.S. report pegged the American housing shortage at 7.3-million homes, which spanned 22 states and the District of Columbia. Indeed, our national housing shortage is much more severe than originally thought, affecting the quality of life of millions of families. The findings of the report clearly indicate […]
| March 1, 2019
The First Step in Solving Washington’s Housing Crisis is Preserving Existing Affordable Housing Programs
Unless the Washington state legislature acts, over 2,000 units of affordable housing could suddenly become unaffordable over the next four years, potentially increasing rents by as much as 100% and forcing thousands of low-income families out of their homes. That’s because an existing tax exemption designed to subsidize affordable housing development across the state is […]
| February 22, 2019
Aligning Oregon’s Transportation and Housing Investments
Last fall, Up for Growth National Coalition released its Housing Underproduction in Oregon report, determining that from 2000 – 2015, Oregon was 155,000 homes short of meeting its housing needs. For several years after the 2008 recession, Oregon only produced six housing units for every 10 new households in the state – indicating a severe imbalance […]
| February 15, 2019
Why Policy Makers are Beginning to Tackle Exclusionary Zoning Across the U.S.
Last week, I had the honor of introducing Heather Worthington at the Urban Land Institute Terwilliger Center for Housing’s Housing Opportunity 2019 conference in Newport Beach, California. If Heather’s name isn’t familiar to you, the policy she helped create, Minneapolis 2040, likely is. Heather is the Director of Long Range Planning for the City of Minneapolis, where she […]