Quote:
Originally Posted by the urban politician
Trump Administration to Take on Local Housing Barriers
President signs order creating White House Council on Eliminating Barriers to Affordable Housing Development
By Laura Kusisto
Updated June 25, 2019 7:01 pm ET
The Trump administration will explore using federal programs to push local governments to soften or eliminate rules that block housing construction, an issue that has stymied officials at all levels of government for years.
President Trump signed an order Tuesday creating the White House Council on Eliminating Barriers to Affordable Housing Development, which will include members of eight federal agencies.
“These are things that can be solved. A lot of [these rules] have been on the books for excessive amounts of time. They’re not particularly relevant anymore,” said Ben Carson, secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, in an interview Tuesday
https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-a...rs-11561483527
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Really misses the mark. The single biggest factor is NIMBY zoning and approval processes. And it's not that there's "old" "not relevant" regulations in place that stymie housing developing. It's that's there's very current, very intentionally restrictive zoning rules and very loud and influential local residents who will fight to the death to keep them, that stymie much development.
Not sure what the feds can do about that, unless the federal government starts to use the power of the purse to condition federal grants and funding to cities upon loosening up their local restrictions on affordable housing/housing density. That might take an act of congress, which would probably end up in a similar place as their local government counterparts: backing down in the face of fierce opposition from powerful local constituencies.
Finally, from what I've seen NIMBYISM is bi-partisan: rich, Republican enclaves in the suburbs are just as likely to oppose loosened zoning rules to allow denser development and mixed uses in their neighborhoods as are "liberal" residents of highly sought after urban neighborhoods. It really comes down to looking out for No. 1, residents of many of these areas are not willing to accept any adverse impacts, no matter how small, regardless of how much of a housing shortage there is, or how high prices have gotten. In Denver, a recent proposal to build truly beautiful rowhouses in a SFH neighborhood was shot down because it would "change the character of the neighborhood." (O the humanity! ROW houses on my block!!).
As others on here have noted, there's a certain "I've got mine already, fuck you" attitude among many Nimbys.
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