Regulatory Barriers Clearinghouse
Strategy-of-the-Month Club
December 2008
The affordable housing shortage continues
to be a major
issue for many state and local governments,
and is being
further exacerbated by the recent -
and steep - rise in
unemployment. Limited land availability,
a lack of
financial resources, and policies instituted
during (and
more appropriate to) better economic
times can hinder
affordable housing development, but
the problem is often
compounded by a multitude of regulatory
barriers. When
municipalities allow restrictive zoning
policies, high
development fees, and lengthy approval
processes to
persist in an already adverse housing
market, it's as
though both homebuilders and homebuyers
are having the
welcome mat pulled out from under them.
A new report prepared for the National
Association of
Home Builders provides a comprehensive
look at a wide
variety of strategies that can be implemented
at the
state and local levels to overcome
these barriers and
increase affordable housing production.
The report,
Research
on State and Local Means of Increasing
Affordable
Housing, catalogues 65 land
use and financial
strategies, and provides descriptions,
funding
mechanisms, pros and cons, and real
world examples for
each strategy.
The report provides detailed information
on tools such
as overlay zoning, density bonus policies,
land banking,
and mixed-use development programs
that can be deployed
to increase affordable housing production.
Other
strategies in the report, such as impact
fee waivers,
rehabilitation codes, tax credits,
and incentives for
infill development, can help reduce
construction costs
and make affordable housing development
more
economically viable. The report also
lists examples of
successful media campaigns and marketing
resources that
help overcome NIMBYism and gain community
support for
proposed affordable housing projects.
In addition to
detailed descriptions and case studies,
readers will
also find listings of additional resources
for each
strategy and example provided in the
report.
To view the report in its entirety,
please visit
https://www.huduser.gov/rbc/search/rbcdetails.asp?DocId=1827.
We hope this information proves useful
to you in your
efforts to grow your region's affordable
housing stock.
If you have regulatory reform strategies
or resources
that you'd like to share, email us
at
rbcsubmit@huduser.gov,
call us at 1-800-245-2691 (option
4), or visit our website at www.regbarriers.org.
On
behalf of HUD's Office of Policy Development
and
Research, the management and staff
of the Regulatory
Barriers Clearinghouse wishes each
of our valued
constituents a safe and enjoyable holiday
season. We
appreciate both your efforts toward,
and your interest
in, bringing housing within reach for
hard working
American families.
Feel free to forward this message to
anyone who is
working to reduce regulatory barriers
to affordable
housing.
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