October 23: What we’re reading
Some articles we found interesting this week:
This is a fascinating story about a software program used by many landlords to set rents through artificial intelligence that may be playing a significant role in accelerating rental rates occurring across the Country, via Pro Publica.
Is Houston really better off without zoning? One planner makes the case in the book, “Arbitrary Lines,” M. Nolan Gray argues that a century of zoning has hardened racial and class segregation in cities across the U.S. and worsened the effects of inequality by making it almost impossible to build anything but single-family homes in some cities. In this Urban Edge interview, M. Nolan Gray suggests looking at how Houston has developed.
Here is an interesting report by the Kenan Institute at UNC on the 20 fastest growing metropolitan areas in the country and what might happen in 2023. No surprise that Raleigh is #4 and Charlotte is #8. Take a look at the report.
San Antonio is using a portion of a $1.2 billion bond package to address housing affordability and its unhoused population, via Bloomberg.
This article in Shelterforce explores how to improve the Housing Choice Voucher program. Presently, voucher holders in cities like Raleigh struggle because too few landlords accept Housing Choice Vouchers. Though Raleigh has taken steps to eliminate “source of income” discrimination, increasing housing supply is one of the key takeaways from this article, via Shelterforce.
At 360 square feet, these “tiny” rental homes offer an interesting architectural take on affordable housing, via Bloomberg.
With the prevailing conservative majority on the US Supreme Court, this lawsuit challenging inclusionary zoning could have ripple effects across the country, via Jurist.
Sound Familiar Raleigh? Arlington’s Missing Middle Housing Push Stirs Affordability Debate, via Washington Post.
The Rent Revolution is Coming, via The New York Times.
More Evidence that Housing Affordability is not a local issue, it’s a National Issue, via MoneyWise.
The lack of adequate funding for building and managing affordable housing is one of the biggest barriers to addressing the affordable housing crisis. This article does a nice job of explaining various revenue options states have to fund affordable housing, via National Housing Conference.
Here’s an interesting article about how landlords hold rent controlled apartments “hostage” by keeping them off the market when market rents are high, via The City.
Inside Charlotte and the NC General Assembly’s “difference of philosophies” on affordable housing: North Carolina is a Dillon’s Rule state, which means that local governments can only regulate areas they are given the authority to, via Axios Charlotte.
Pro-housing policies are popular, despite public comments, via Southern Urbanism.