After decades of inaction, states are finally stepping up on housing

For years, the easiest thing to do about building new housing was nothing.

The federal government largely deferred to state and local governments on matters of land use, and states mostly deferred to local governments, which typically defer to their home-owning constituents who back restrictive zoning laws that bar new construction.

That’s slowly changing as the housing supply crisis ripples across the country. Experts say the US is short somewhere between 3.8 million and 6.8 million homes, and most renters feel priced out of the idea of homeownership altogether. The lack of affordable housing is causing homelessness to rise.

In Washington, DC, Congress has held more hearings on housing affordability recently than it has in decades, and President Joe Biden has been ramping up attention on the housing crisis, promising to “build, build, build” to “bring housing costs down for good.”

But it’s at the state level where some of the most consequential change is taking place.