More housing supply can ease the country’s affordability crunch. So how can the United States boost its inventory? A former housing policy leader says it requires thinking creatively.
Housing affordability remains a top concern among policymakers in Washington, D.C., who strive to boost accessibility for buyers across the country. Marcia Fudge, a former secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, said creative solutions exist. Fudge led the department from 2021 through 2024 under the Biden administration.
Fudge spoke Thursday at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She is the Richard L. and Ronay A. Menschel Senior Leadership Fellow at Harvard's School of Public Health.
“Prices are so high because we don’t have enough houses, not enough affordable houses in this country,” Fudge said.
Supply solutions exist in three main forms, Fudge said: 3D printing, zoning, and building residences on property owned or sold by hospitals, houses of worship and universities.
Municipalities should analyze their zoning to fuel housing development, she said. “The biggest problem is most cities haven’t even looked at their zoning for years and years,” Fudge said.
And residents should encourage socio-economically diverse housing development.
“Even our most liberal friends who want to help don’t want to help enough to have it next door to their house," Fudge said. "What we find is people come to planning meetings saying we don’t want you to change the zoning in our neighborhood. It has to be only residential. It means you can’t put even a small four-unit building that is rental."
Pre-manufactured residences, 3D-printed houses and trailer homes can quickly boost housing supply. “We have homes that you put together almost like a puzzle. They ship all of the pieces and put them together,” Fudge said.
Colleges, hospitals and houses of worship can contribute to the housing market by developing residences on their sites or selling pieces of land to residential developers.
“Universities, houses of worship, hospitals control most of the land in this country. They should be using it to help people who need it," Fudge said. "They come in and they take up huge portions of the neighborhoods that I grew up in. They come in and empty out the core of the inner cities.
“You should be doing more because in many of these places, people were displaced by you, so do your part.”