Addressing Housing’s Critical Role as Infrastructure

Housing is a critical piece of the nation’s infrastructure and the part of the built environment most intertwined with our daily lives. But lagging production and declining quality of existing housing stock have left the nation’s supply of housing in trouble and in need of serious investment. The Biden-Harris Administration’s recent American Jobs Plan, as well as companion proposals from the House and Senate, represents a potentially historic reaffirmation of housing as infrastructure and would commit billions to addressing housing affordability.

But increasing funding levels for our existing housing programs needs to be paired with critical reform of those systems, a rethinking of how we deliver housing assistance directly to families, and changes to the broader regulatory and land use landscape.

A new post by Barry Zigas, Zigas and Associates, and Terner Center Managing Director Ben Metcalf highlights the critical opportunity presented by the infrastructure proposal to move forward a comprehensive effort to fix our broken housing system.