Five Steps to Promoting Affordable Housing

ULI headquarters in Washington, DC

WASHINGTON, DC—More than 11 million US households are severely cost burdened, paying half or more of their income for housing, says the Urban Land Institute, citing the latest study on affordability from the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University. Their ranks are expected to swell by another 1.3 million households over the next decade. To help stem the tide of economic burden, a new report from ULI advocates closer partnerships between states and cities.

“At a time when states and cities are often at odds over hotly contested social and economic issues, land use reforms that expand housing choices and opportunities can constitute common ground,” says Stockton Williams, principal author of the report and executive director of ULI’s Terwilliger Center for Housing, which published the report. “State and local collaboration on housing can create a lower cost of doing business, a more efficient real estate market and a wider array of options for buyers and renters across the income spectrum.”