Clockwise from upper left: Christopher Ptomey, executive director of ULI’s Terwilliger Center for Housing; Jenny Schuetz, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution; and Renee Lewis Glover, founder and managing member of the Catalyst Group, formerly CEO of the Atlanta Housing Authority, as part of a session titled “Fixing U.S. Housing Policy.”
At the 2022 ULI Housing Opportunity Conference, a session looked at the high cost of the gap between U.S. population and job growth and the creation of housing where people want to live.
Jenny Schuetz, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and author of Fixer Upper: How to Repair America’s Broken Housing System, spoke with Christopher Ptomey, executive director of ULI’s Terwilliger Center for Housing, and Renee Lewis Glover, founder and managing member of the Catalyst Group, formerly CEO of the Atlanta Housing Authority, as part of a session titled “Fixing U.S. Housing Policy.”
“Nationally, we have failed to build enough homes to keep up with population and job growth since the Great Recession, and even longer in some parts of the country,” said Schuetz. “Policies such as apartment bans, large minimum lot sizes, and historic preservation have effectively frozen desirable neighborhoods in amber.”
Schuetz said that some 10 million Americans spend more than half of their income on housing, leaving little income left to pay for health care or any other surprise costs.
“Millions of families with children live in poor-quality homes or neighborhoods with high levels of financial stress,” she said. “If the U.S. wants to have a healthy, well-educated, and productive workforce 20 years from now, we need to invest in better-quality living environments for all children today.”
Schuetz added that most of the housing production that has occurred over the last decade is at the fringes of existing communities, often creating a hazard for flooding and wildfires while also increasing the dependence on cars for transportation.
She said that it is estimated that the United States lost 30 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) growth since the 1960s by underproducing housing in areas with job growth.
The reliance of localities on property taxes to fund schools, parks, and other key institutions and services widens the gap between the haves and have-nots, said Schuetz.
She pointed to statewide successes in Massachusetts, Virginia, and North Carolina as examples where policies are beginning to change.
Schuetz said that creating a consensus around more good housing policies would make communities more prosperous, equitable, and resilient for everyone.
