Housing Policy Repair for a New Era: Let’s Review

Communities across the U.S. are increasingly frustrated at the persistence of mid-20th-century thinking about housing among local leaders even in the face of a mountain of 21st-century evidence that times have changed.

1 minute read

April 8, 2014, 10:00 AM PDT

By Hazel Borys


"Town planners usually get all this stuff and can be heroic in their advocacy for more market-responsive and fairer ways to guide development and redevelopment. But around a table of community movers and shakers made up of elected officials and the people who most influence them — NIMBYs, conventional real estate development types and others heavily invested in the old ways — planners have little clout."

Ben Brown gives a run down of the recent housing reports, and offers up key points that all of us planners should be on top of.

"The changes that are required in the way communities address housing are becoming more obvious every day, and the trauma and expense of adjusting to new ways of doing business will increase proportionately. Which is to say there are going to be lots of losers as well as winners in the new era."

Monday, April 7, 2014 in PlaceShakers

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I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban Planner

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