A Federal Bill Encapsulates the Complex Nature of the Housing Shortage

A Federal Bill Encapsulates the Complex Nature of the Housing Shortage
By Tommy Herbert

S.902 was introduced in March of last year to the United States Senate, and in many ways has lived a very typical life for a piece of federal legislation; that to say it has gone nowhere and done nothing. The bill was brought, in part, by one of Virginia’s own Senators, former Democratic vice-presidential nominee Tim Kaine.

Kaine is quoted in the press release with “It’s critical that we eliminate barriers that keep Americans from accessing safe and affordable housing. I’m proud to cosponsor this bipartisan legislation that would help address our nation’s housing crisis and provide state and local governments the resources they need to ensure more Virginians can find affordable housing.”

These are noble goals, shared hopefully by all Americans, however the legislation itself showcases the extreme difficulty that the federal government suffers in finding a place for itself in addressing the national housing shortage. The bill establishes a system of grants for local governments incentivizing the study or implementation of innovative policy to expand housing. In the bill, one type of grant exists for studying or formulating policy, and another for implementing such policy plans, and they are to be applied for by local governments. 

This presents tough questions. In so many places and cases, local governments themselves present barriers to affordable housing production and do so directly at the behest of their constituents who are discomforted by the idea of new development or the people who may occupy it. Those residents so often fall back on classic, fallacious Not In My Back Yard (NIMBY) style arguments, and press their local reps to do the same. That is not to paint every local government, or even most local governments with that brush. But a vicious cycle does develop in places.

The deeper the shortage of rental housing gets in a locality, the more division between new residents entering and current residents develops. Before long, the opposition calcifies, not along logical policy lines but along suspicion and fear. That means broadly that the most popular places to live are likely to be the places with the greatest housing shortages, and therefore the places where housing development will face harsh opposition, and the localities most targeted by the federal bill.

How then can the very officials that are politically beholden to anti-development citizens be trusted to properly plan for expanded development? Every locality is different, and has different housing needs, which this bill acknowledges, but one has only to look up to Arlington County, Virginia to see the slow-rolling disaster that local NIMBY activism can lead to. Leaning on elected local governments to make plans to boost housing development can in some places be analogous to the late-20th century phenomenon of tasking the cigarette companies to formulate their own anti-smoking campaigns.

How can the federal government hand down funds to accomplish a goal to a local government that was elected, at least in part, by people who oppose it? Is any policy “carrot,” effective enough to entice local officials to look for approval to Washington rather than to their own districts? Is some type of policy “stick,” or mandated action from the federal government more likely to succeed? These are deep rhetorical questions, and they have different answers depending on which town or city you visit, and the expert or activist that you talk to.

Time will tell whether the Housing Supply and Affordability Act can find new life next year in the 118th Congress after its lackluster run in the 117th. The National Apartment Association continues to count among the bill’s supporters, along with the National Multifamily Housing Council and other housing provider-focused federal stakeholders. Innovation is sorely needed to somehow help America address the deep supply shortage of housing that we suffer relative to demand. We applaud Senator Kaine for trying to be part of the solution to that shortage, and hope that we can collaborate to help the federal government move the needle in trying to address it.