Will Upzoning Alleviate the Affordable Housing Shortage?

Upzoning is the buzzword on the mind of every builder, politician, and activist concerned about affordable housing. But the full story of how upzoning works is more than just building multifamily duplexes next to a single-family home: Struggles with building codes, local politics, and the racial segregation that persists in American cities are all intertwined in the upzoning debate. And because it is such a recent phenomenon, there is not really any concrete evidence for or against rezoning single-family lots. But with so many Americans unable to afford a home—or rent, for that matter—more local governments such as those in Portland are willing to give it a shot. 

Housing affordability is a growing issue in America, and there’s a battle over how to fix it happening on blocks across the country. Zoning—the rules that govern how cities use their land—is on the front line.

Between 1986 and 2017, the median price of single-family housing in the U.S. rose from 370 percent of the median U.S. household’s yearly income to 410 percent, according to the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies. Eleven million American households spend more than half their paychecks on rent and utilities. The number of cost burdened renters is on the rise, especially among middle-income households. The percentage of “supercommuters”—meaning those who travel more than 90 minutes each way to work—has skyrocketed. Almost nowhere in the United States is it possible for a minimum-wage worker to afford a two-bedroom apartment. Each year, an estimated 2.5 to 3.5 million people experience homelessness. Progressive coastal cities and rural America alike are experiencing shortages of affordable housing.

Recently, policymakers at the state and local levels across the country have zeroed in on a culprit: zoning that limits development to single-family detached houses in large swaths of America. From the east and west coasts to the Midwest, lawmakers are beating the drum for upzoning, which means changing single-family zoning codes to allow taller and denser housing, like duplexes, triplexes, accessory dwelling units (ADUs), and apartment buildings. In the last few years, upzoning legislation has been introduced or passed in California, Oregon, Washington, Seattle, Minneapolis, Nebraska, Virginia, and Maryland. The federal government has also expressed interest in pressing local governments to relax zoning laws that prohibit multi-family housing.

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