U.S. Cities Are Trying to Provide Affordable Housing Solutions as Washington Stalls

Cities like New York, San Francisco, Boston and Chicago have been left trying to pick up the mantle on affordable housing as Congress and the Trump administration leave it unaddressed.

These densely populated urban hubs — which have some of the country’s largest homeless populations — are confronting federal funding cuts and uncertainty over further reductions from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Their officials are feeling the pressure to pursue interim solutions, including revisiting and updating long-standing zoning codes.

“I think that you see the state government and the city trying to work with the private industry to figure out some means so that we could build more housing and create more housing,” said Rep. Gregory Meeks, a senior member of the House Financial Services Committee, of New York. “I wish the federal government would do its part, but apparently it’s not under this president.”

The U.S. has a shortage of more than 4.7 million single-family homes due to more than a decade of lagging housing development caused by the Great Recession, according to analysis by Zillow. On top of that, the National Low Income Housing Coalition estimates more than 7 million affordable homes are needed for America’s more than 10.8 million low-income families.

Some cities have been looking into overhauling old zoning codes with the hopes of squeezing in more affordable housing within their already-crowded boundaries.

In New York City, the city council approved the Jamaica Neighborhood Plan, a rezoning measure approved in November that city officials estimate will create about 12,000 new homes in Queens. Roughly 4,000 of those units are expected to be designated affordable housing, made possible by increasing home-building opportunities in areas previously limited to low-density residential and commercial development.

“I have personally been in favor of changing single-family zoning laws. Of course, each zoning law has to be merited individually as its own individual proposal, but in general, it’s important for us to include zoning in the conversation of building,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told NOTUS of the cities’ rezoning efforts.

In a push to build 30,000 homes in San Francisco, the Board of Supervisors passed the Family Zoning Plan, a sweeping rezoning proposal signed by Mayor Daniel Lurie on Dec. 15 to fast-track housing developments in low-density neighborhoods.

“What we’re seeing happening right now with the federal government is they’re not providing the funding, and they’re not providing leadership on how to increase affordability, especially on housing,” Bilal Mahmood, a Board of Supervisors member who serves on San Francisco’s Land Use and Transportation Committee and supported the proposal, told NOTUS.

“Especially in this time, it’s up to the local municipalities, to state[s] and cities to actually chart our own destinies to do the best we can to make sure that we have more affordable cities, ” Mahmood continued.

City officials are also looking to each other for ideas on how to provide solutions for the housing shortage.

“We just had a hearing last week on eliminating parking minimums in the city of Boston, a policy proposal that over 100 other cities have taken on,” Sharon Durkan, a Boston City Council member who is the chair of the Land Use and Transportation Committee, told NOTUS, in reference to a proposal that would free up space for additional housing.

“We should be trying to do anything possible. And if other cities have had luck with eliminating parking minimums, with legalizing apartment buildings, with eliminating single-family zoning, like those are all things that should be on the table right now,” she added.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration is trying to scale back federal housing and homeless programs.

HUD, which is in charge of overseeing housing in the U.S., has undergone a series of policy and staffing changes that have reshaped how it operates and allocates housing funding. The department has weakened its capacity to enforce fair housing laws, and even faced some Republican pushback over a now-rescinded notice of funding that experts warned would cause 170,000 people to lose permanent supportive housing across the country.

HUD did not respond to a request for comment.

But Housing advocates, including many Democratic lawmakers, continue to emphasize HUD’s failure to collaborate with local authorities under the Trump administration.

“I think that HUD needs to take up its real mandate, which is for urban housing and development, and really become partners with cities, states, municipalities across this country to say: ‘Listen, you know, we want to see a diverse demographic that has been traditionally part of these cities. How can we help? What can we do?’” Rep. Yvette Clarke of New York told NOTUS.

“We won’t see that coming out of this HUD, unfortunately,” the lawmaker added.

Not all cities are looking to review zoning codes, but instead to work within them.
Earlier this year, the Chicago City Council passed the Green Social Housing Ordinance in an attempt to be less reliant on federal housing funding. The ordinance promotes affordable housing development that is environmentally sustainable and is aimed at financing 1,200 units annually. At least 30% of those will be affordable for households with incomes at or below 80% of the area’s median income.

But even its proponents admit that the city’s efforts are stopgap measures meant to protect its housing agenda from federal inaction.

“We must pass legislation, because only with a plan and a vision, we can fight displacement, we can fight the issue of poverty, we can fight the issue of not having enough shelter and housing when we are the richest country in the history of the world,” said Alderman Byron Sigcho-Lopez, chair of Chicago’s Housing and Real Estate Committee, of the need for Congress to pass legislation aimed at addressing housing concerns.