, Columnist
America Can’t Zone Its Way Out of Its Housing Crisis
Ending single-family zoning, as Salt Lake City and Austin have voted to do, isn’t enough to make housing more affordable.
Soon to be more affordable?
Photographer: George Frey/Bloomberg
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Salt Lake City and Austin, which like most US cities are suffering from an acute shortage of affordable housing, took dramatic action last week to address it. Or did they?
By a 6-to-1 vote on Tuesday, the Salt Lake city council ended single-family zoning. In Austin on Thursday, the vote was 9-to-2. The goal of ending single-family zoning is shared by affordable-housing activists nationwide, but its actual consequences hinge on how exactly it is done — and what exactly replaces it.