Legislators across the country are scrambling to develop policies that will lead to more affordable housing. (Affordable housing means that a family is paying 30 percent or less of its income on housing.) One of the most popular schemes is to provide tax credits for developers who agree to set aside a percentage of their…
In 2017, the Austin City Council adopted the Strategic Housing Blueprint, which set a goal for the city to build 135,000 new affordable housing units within ten years. According to the city’s own website, in the first two years of the plan, the city built a total of 16,253 housing units, or about 60 percent…
Housing advocates lament the fact that a full-time worker making minimum wage can’t afford a two-bedroom apartment. This, they want us to believe, is an example of the affordable housing crisis. But they fail to explain why a two-bedroom apartment is the standard. They fail to explain why a one-bedroom apartment or a studio apartment…
In an editorial, the Los Angeles Times has called for the federal government to dramatically expand its housing subsidy program (often called Section 8). Currently, the Los Angeles Housing Authority administers 58,000 Section 8 vouchers. However, the authority estimates that 600,000 vouchers are needed to provide vouchers to everyone who qualifies. If the Housing Authority…
A coalition of residents, activists, and students is conducting a public shakedown on Rice University because of its Ion technology development building in Houston’s Third Ward. Rice has already given tentative approval to an agreement with the city that would have the university establish a venture fund to provide financing for black and Latino entrepreneurs,…
Since 2016, California has enacted numerous pieces of legislation that pave the way for the construction of accessory dwelling units (ADUs). ADUs are also known as granny flats and in-law units, and they serve as a secondary housing unit on a parcel of land. The purpose of these laws is to stimulate the production of…
The Texas General Land Office recently announced that it will be seizing private property along the Gulf Coast. Tropical storms in 2020 moved the tide lines along the coast, and according to the Texas open beach statutes, the state owns land from the average low tide line to the vegetation line. The result is that…
In the late nineteenth century, self-taught geologist Patillo Higgins concluded that a salt dome in Beaumont contained oil. Geological experts scoffed at Higgins’ claim and publicly urged investors to avoid him. When Spindletop erupted as the world’s first “gusher” in January 1901, Higgins proved the experts wrong. In helping to launch the Texas oil industry,…
A North Carolina senator has introduced a bill that would eliminate single-family zoning throughout the state. The bill would require local governments to allow duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes in all areas zoned for residential. Not surprisingly, local governments are objecting. Local government officials argue that the bill interferes with their power to dictate land use….
A growing trend in housing is building more missing middle housing. In most cities, new housing consists of single-family homes, mid-rise or high-rise apartments, and large apartment complexes. In between these “extremes” is the missing middle—duplexes, fourplexes, small apartment buildings, and cottages. Prior to the 1920s, this assortment of housing options was available in most…
Housing advocates frequently claim that the rent is too damn high. (From 2005 to 2015, there was even a political party in New York that focused on this single issue.) While it can be easy to empathize with that sentiment, housing advocates share much of the blame. Under the guise of “tenants’ rights” advocates propose…
In the early twentieth century, cities across the nation began enacting zoning ordinances that prohibited blacks from buying a home in a predominantly white neighborhood and vice versa. Beginning in the 1930s, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) refused to insure mortgages for black homeowners. For decades, at both the federal and local level, government essentially…