Issue Fact Sheet: Housing Supply and Affordability

NAA Viewpoint

One of the best strategies to address our housing affordability crisis is to make housing more available through increased production of units where they are needed most. This is not easy for myriad reasons, including the significant local barriers to development of new rental housing. 

Housing Supply and Affordability

Housing affordability is a complex issue, driven by diverse factors including income levels, land and natural resource availability, population growth and housing supply demand imbalance. One of the best strategies to address this issue is to make housing more available through increased production of units where they are needed most. This is not easy for myriad reasons, including the significant local barriers to development of new rental housing. 

NAA conducted a national survey to better understand factors that impact new supply of apartments. The survey measured development complexity including the impact of community involvement, construction costs, infrastructure, growth restrictions, land supply, environmental restrictions, approval process and political complexity, time to develop a new property and others. The survey found that, in addition to the importance of land availability, input from local citizens (sometimes expressed as Not In My Back Yard or NIMBY activism) significantly influences development. As well, rising land and labor costs are inhibiting the production of affordable housing while complex approval systems are correlated to affordability issues.

There is a constructive role for the federal government to play in solving the housing shortage and affordability crisis, including the issue of local barriers to development. Bipartisan legislation – the Yes In My Backyard Act or YIMBY Act – introduced in the House of Representatives (H.R. 4351) and the Senate (S.1919) enables this by: 

  1. Encouraging localities to eliminate discriminatory land use policies and remove barriers that prevent needed housing from being built around the country;
  2. Requiring Community Development Block Grant recipients to report periodically on the extent to which they are removing discriminatory land use policies and implementing inclusive and affordable housing;
  3. Increasing transparency and encouraging more thoughtful and inclusive development practices by requiring localities to fully examine and disclose their housing policy decisions. 

NAA strongly urges members of Congress to support the YIMBY Act.