By: Kayla Giordano, Senior Strategic Initiatives Manager, Partnership for Strong Communities
Last month, The Partnership welcomed Jerusalem Demsas, writer for The Atlantic and author of On The Housing Crisis: Land, Development, Democracy, to join us at the 2024 Connecticut Affordable Housing Conference. Demsas is a leader in the housing space and during her keynote address she gave voice to the problems facing not only Connecticut, but the nation at large, in addressing a housing crisis which leaves over half of renter households cost burdened and one in four homeowners paying more than 30% of their income towards their home.
Demsas uses an analogy to explain the root cause of the housing crisis that we’re all familiar with, a game of musical chairs. Typically, the fastest and biggest kids win the game. In the housing market, it’s much the same. The people who can move quickly and have the largest wallets get to buy the house or rent the apartment. And just like in the housing market, the reason for the competition in musical chairs is scarcity; there are not enough chairs to begin with. This is the crux of the housing problem in America – there are simply not enough homes.
Recent publications from the National Low Income Housing Coalition and the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority, estimate a shortage of over 90,000+ units of housing in Connecticut just for our lowest income renters. In her talk, Demsas spoke about the national need for an additional four million new homes nationwide to satisfy demand and bring down the skyrocketing housing costs that are causing increasing instability. Demsas vision is for “housing choice and housing abundance”, two of the Partnership’s own core values. She argues that “the primary cause of housing undersupply are the regulations and procedures that are hostile to the development of new housing”, making it increasingly hard to build in communities that desperately need new housing stock. Pointing to zoning, Demsas noted that requirements like large lot sizes, parking minimums and other restrictive measures prevent development and make what little development happens more expensive. She cites research from the University of Pennsylvania which found that home prices are $30,000 higher in areas with more zoning requirements. This issue hits close to home in Connecticut where the need for adoption of inclusionary zoning measures has been a hot topic of conversation locally and at the legislature.
Demsas spoke at length about the phenomenon known as “supply skepticism”. People see their communities changing on a hyperlocal level, a new apartment building or a few new single-family homes, and assume that demand is being met. But individuals are unlikely to be plugged into the housing needs of the broader state. This is why, she states “If you are wedded to local control then you are not serious about solving the housing crisis”, a statement which ties not only to her thoughts on policy but about participatory democracy at large. Demsas highlights the challenges of local government systems that place undue influence on the few people who have the time to show up. She calls attention to the fact that those who are likely to benefit the most from new housing are people not yet living where homes are being proposed. In this way, only the opposition of current residents is represented and not the future beneficiaries. This necessitates a conversation about need for action on zoning reform at the state level and other supply-side solutions.
People are naturally afraid of change, but this fear does not stop change from happening. So how can we be proactive in creating meaningful change? Demsas points to the need to address the ever-present tension between rising home values caused by scarcity and the desire to increase supply and therefore affordability. She believes that a part of the solution is to shift the perspective that the American dream means owning a single-family home with a white picket fence. She calls out the impact of sharing stories of thriving communities, like hers in DC, where people live and raise their families in row houses, apartments and other denser housing types. She states, “people will go to Europe or East Asia and marvel at the beautiful urbanism and don’t even realize that is banned in their own housing markets back home.” She concludes, we need “a massive redefinition of what it means to have made it” and to shift our focus towards creating communities where there is space for everyone.
Interested in hearing more? You can listen to Jerusalem’s full address on the Partnership’s YouTube channel, alongside 24 other informative and engaging sessions from this year’s Connecticut Affordable Housing Conference. To stay in touch with the Partnership, make sure you’re subscribed to our mailing list here.
Click here for full CAHC 2024 recap.
Click here for an in-depth summary of Brian McCabe and Eva Rosen’s keynote.