During a Senate Banking Committee hearing last week, Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE) spoke about housing shortages.
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript
Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript
Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Thank you, Senator Blunt-Rochester.
00:03Thank you, Chairman Scott and Ranking Member Warren for this really thoughtful, thoughtful
00:10hearing on housing.
00:13Thank you to the panel for all of your testimony.
00:15I think it's abundantly clear when you just listen to every member here, every senator,
00:20that we all recognize that we have a housing crisis in this country.
00:24And I hope, Mr. Mayor, this provides some hope to you that we recognize we're in this
00:30together.
00:32Buying a home has never been more expensive.
00:34There are Delawareans right now who have worked to get a down payment.
00:40But for a new home, it could cost them a half a million dollars just to put down, you know,
00:47to be able to afford a house.
00:48And so we know that this is a challenge.
00:52And I think about building generational wealth.
00:56I think about workforce housing.
00:59We have doctors and nurses and firefighters who can't afford housing.
01:03I think about the root causes of those who are unhoused and how we tackle this, and whether
01:08it's our veterans, our seniors, or young people.
01:12This is literally affecting everybody in this country.
01:15And so, Dr. Glazer, I wanted to ask my first question of you.
01:19As the nation's most preeminent scholar on housing, land use, and the economy, could
01:27you talk to us a little bit about, in your research, you mentioned restrictive land use
01:32policies have created an imbalance of supply and demand.
01:37And I've focused a lot on zoning reform and cutting regulatory barriers and cutting red
01:42tape in the House and now in the Senate.
01:45But could you talk a little bit about the overall economic impact of a lack of housing
01:49supply and why everybody, whether you're a small business or a family, should care?
01:56Thank you very much, Senator, for your question.
01:57Thank you for your leadership in this topic, in this area.
02:00This is a national problem.
02:02As I mentioned in my testimony, as was mentioned by Ms. Willis, our nation is poorer as a result
02:10of this, right?
02:11Because we move to places where it's possible to build rather than places in which people
02:16would necessarily want to live.
02:18And that means our overall GDP is lower than it was.
02:21That means fewer tax dollars.
02:22That means less ability to meet our foreign policy requirements.
02:27All of that weakens us fundamentally as a country.
02:30I believe that we are also a country that has less upward mobility because we particularly
02:36regulate those communities that are really good at turning kids of poor parents into
02:41middle-income adults.
02:42Those are the areas that are most restrictive when we look across areas.
02:46And I'm relying on my colleague Raj Chetty's data on upward mobility to do that.
02:50But you really see this in the data.
02:51And it's just tragic, right?
02:52There are some parts of America that are just great at turning poor kids into middle-income
02:56adults.
02:57And we should be trying to make sure as many kids manage to get there as possible.
03:01And yet we don't because of local land use regulations that just say no.
03:06And it is precisely because these local rules have national consequences that I think it
03:11is appropriate for your committee to take up this issue, that this is no longer just
03:15an issue for one town or one area.
03:17This is an issue that, in fact, impacts all of us.
03:19It impacts the intergenerational accumulation of wealth, as you said.
03:22It's a redistribution across space.
03:24And it just makes us less dynamic than we could be.
03:26And I want to put a finer point on what we've heard that I think all of us consider local
03:33land use and zoning reforms to be critical to unlocking new housing supply.
03:38And it's why I last year introduced a bipartisan bill, the Housing Supply and Innovation Frameworks
03:44Act in the House, and have worked to co-develop the Reducing Regulatory Barriers to Housing Act.
03:50And these bills would reimagine outdated zoning laws and cut red tape.
03:55But we also know that we need the local level support.
04:00They're the ones that are making these land use decisions.
04:03I want to jump to the issue of breaking down barriers and cutting red tape, but also talking
04:10about shared equity housing models.
04:13I think we need innovation, not just in addition to what we do on land use.
04:17We need innovation as well.
04:20And so when I think about shared equity models, I think about community land trusts and creating
04:25permanently affordable homes, while still building wealth and delivering on the promise
04:30of home ownership.
04:31To the panel, do you think that shared equity models, housing models, play a role in addressing
04:37the housing crisis and achieve home ownership for moderate income Americans or other innovative
04:43solutions that you might have?
04:44And I'll start with you, Ms. Willis.
04:46Sure.
04:47Thank you for that question, Senator.
04:49Absolutely.
04:50I think shared ownership example, and when I think about those, I think about community
04:55land trust, as you mentioned, as being a really good resource and an example of shared
05:03equity model.
05:06And so certainly would encourage you and your colleagues to expand opportunities for community
05:11land trust, as well as shared equity programs in general for home ownership, because it
05:16does allow opportunities for people to move into home ownership and to continue.
05:25I actually am preparing legislation in this area, so I will share that with the committee.
05:30But I want to, again, we will ask some more questions for the record.
05:34But again, I want to thank you all for your testimony and your work in ensuring that Americans
05:39can live a prosperous life and that the children, like I did, my parents also lived in public
05:46housing for a while.
05:48To be able to be the first, to go into that first home that my parents bought, it's nothing
05:55like it.
05:56There's nothing like it.
05:57So thank you.
05:58And I yield back.
05:59Thank you, Senator.