Legislative Agenda
Identifying Regulatory Barriers to Housing Supply Act
Congressional sponsors: House Rep. Flood (R-NE 1), Senator Todd Young (R-IN), House Rep. Brittany Pettersen (D-CO 7), Senator Brian Shantz (D-HI)
Background
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As of 2022, the U.S. was 3.85M homes short of meeting housing need.
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Housing Underproduction – the gap between the housing we have and the housing we need – shows up in all 50 states.
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One-third of U.S. households are cost-burdened.
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Exclusionary land use policies — including zoning and density restrictions, onerous parking requirements, and other burdensome development regulations — drive a severe housing shortage and affordability crisis.
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Housing underproduction also increases the cost of living for families, inhibits geographic mobility, burdens renters and buyers, and stifles economic productivity. According to one estimate, from 1964 to 2009, our national housing shortage lowered aggregate economic growth by 36 percent.
Legislative Solution
To help support the goal of facilitating more home building, this Act would:
- Enhance Transparency in Local Zoning:
- Require communities receiving federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds to publicly report on their progress in removing onerous land-use policies. This disclosure sheds light on burdensome practices.
- Reduce Regulatory Barriers to Development:
- Provide a framework for communities to address the housing crisis by identifying and removing restrictive regulations.
Benefits:
- Requiring federal CDBG grant recipients to report on the extent to which they are eliminating exclusionary policies starts an important conversation that increases transparency in land use and housing policy.
- The Act breaks down barriers to growth and paves the way for increased economic productivity.
- This important legislation provides a roadmap for communities to improve affordability and equity in housing.
U.S GDP Growth associated with closing the underproduction gap
