U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) is trying to push a bill across the finish line that establishes a new federal program to reward state and local governments that reform land-use policies and other local barriers that constrain the supply of affordable housing.
“We need to legalize housing, and abandon the exclusionary zoning that originated during Jim Crow and continues today,” Schatz said in a release this week. “Government needs to change its mentality from intentionally constraining the supply of housing to incentivizing it.”
Schatz, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, said the new $85 million federal grant program helps reverse a trend that has seen local zoning and land use regulations stymie housing production to the point it has struggled to keep pace with population and economic growth and resulting in a nationwide housing shortage.
The bill recommends several new policies, including: increasing density, reducing minimum lot sizes, creating transit-oriented development zones, streamlining or shortening permitting processes and timelines, allowing accessory dwelling units on lots with single-family homes and eliminating or relaxing residential property height limitations.
Schatz, in bipartisan partnership with U.S. Sen. Todd Young (R-IN), first introduced the Yes in My Backyard Act in 2019. It was re-introduced last year and has the support of more than 250 organizations.