“How the US made affordable homes illegal” — Vox, 2021, 9:41 — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Flsg_mzG-M

While many issues impacting the lack of affordable homes are discussed in this video, the most prominent is exclusionary zoning, or the banning of certain types of construction developments in a given area. In many areas of the country, multi-family homes are illegal because of zoning ordinances. This makes constructing affordable homes near impossible in these areas as all homes must be spacious (i.e., expensive) single-family homes. Height restrictions, parking requirements, and minimum lot sizes accomplish similar ends and result in higher housing costs. Exclusionary zoning laws also have a racist history and still have racialized effects as well.

How does your town or city zone housing lots? Do they allow multi-family housing?

ACTIVITY IDEA: It may be good to pair an investigation of zoning rules with the Racial Dot Map to see if areas restricted to single-family homes are disproportionately white.

From the video’s description: Over the past year, housing prices in the US rose precipitously. Low interest rates and millennials’ entry into the market spiked demand across the nation, leading housing prices in some cities to increase by more than 20 percent in one year, and crushing the dreams of many would-be homeowners. But housing prices in the US were a problem long before 2020 — and while demand is a big part of the story, there’s an even bigger reason it’s increasingly difficult for Americans to find affordable housing: We don’t have enough houses. According to one estimate, the US is now facing a nearly four-million-home shortage. And the primary reason for that shortage is what’s called exclusionary zoning. Zoning laws are the local rules and regulations that decide what types of homes can be built where. These rules can sometimes have good intentions. But they also have a dark history in the United States as a tool to keep certain races, religions, and nationalities out of white neighborhoods. And while zoning laws in the US are no longer explicitly racist, their effect remains basically the same: to keep affordable housing, and the people who need it, away from the wealthiest Americans. Today, in the majority of the US, especially in cities with good jobs, it’s illegal to build many affordable types of housing. And it’s led to a widespread affordability crisis. Watch the video above for more.