By Kery Murakami | Route Fifty
In a little-noticed move, President Biden is ramping up his push to get local governments to relax single-family zoning laws, a type of land-use policy that many critics blame for restricting the supply of affordable housing and that the president’s own economic advisors have said “systemically discriminated against Black families.”
Biden in his March 26 budget request for the next fiscal year called for creating a $10 billion state and local grant program meant to encourage and support zoning changes that would allow more kinds of housing to go up in what are often largely white and wealthier neighborhoods.
Housing Supply Fund
The Budget proposes the establishment of a new HUD program, the Housing Supply Fund, to address the affordable housing supply shortage…$10 billion from the Housing Supply Fund would be provided to state and local governments that amend their zoning laws to make it easier to build affordable housing in their jurisdictions. The funding would be used to further incentivize the development of affordable housing or housing-related infrastructure, such as sewers, roads, and environmental planning.
– NCSHA’s Analysis of the Administration’s FY 2023 Budget Request
The proposed funding would dwarf a similar plan embedded in the president’s now-derailed Build Back Better package. The earlier initiative checked in around $1.7 billion. The funding Biden has floated in his 2023 budget for the zoning-related program totals roughly six times that.
In another shift from the earlier domestic spending legislation, Biden’s new proposal would pump federal funding for affordable housing, road, water and sewer improvements to those communities willing to revamp zoning codes. Money would also be available for costs like research and technical assistance to help places working on changes.
To win approval, the proposals in Biden’s budget need enough support to clear Congress, including in the narrowly divided Senate. Some lawmakers in both parties have shown interest in wading into zoning issues, including with legislation of their own. But the odds that a major, new federal program focused on zoning will be enacted into law are far from clear.
Still, the attention the issue is getting is notable. Zoning and residential land-use policies are typically dealt with at the local level. Talk of federal intervention comes as many cities around the nation deal with major affordable housing shortages, and as the Biden administration and Democrats seek to address racial inequities across a range of policy areas.
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