This housing
development “toolkit” was made public by the White House with a goal of helping
local governments remove impediments to the construction of more affordable
housing. According to the toolkit’s executive summary, a “growing severity of
under supplied housing markets is jeopardizing housing affordability for working
families, increasing income inequality by reducing less-skilled workers’ access
to high-wage labor markets, and stifling GDP growth by driving labor migration
away from the most productive regions.”
As a result, the
toolkit outlines key actions that states and local governments can take to reduce
barriers to affordable housing, including:
- Enacting both high density and multifamily zoning;
- Streamlining or shortening the permit process;
- Eliminating off-street parking requirements;
- Establishing density bonuses; and
- Employing inclusionary zoning.
