Technical Support for Overcoming Regulatory Barriers to
Affordable Housing

Two significant results of the recent housing boom have been a dramatic increase in the price of housing and the adoption of more restrictive land use regulations as a reaction to rapid development. Local communities try to preserve their traditional development patterns with low-density zoning and protracted review of new development proposals. As a result, not wholly unintended, the construction of affordable housing has been reduced. Low-income households have to spend a higher share of their income for housing and commute much longer distances to work. Employers have to raise wages to compensate their workers. In the long run, high housing costs for public service employees, medical personnel and university staff will undercut the efficiency of our public institutions. To maintain balanced growth, metropolitan areas must find equitable ways to provide affordable housing.
State and local affordable housing partnerships have long recognized the need for more affordable housing. In addition to raising awareness among fellow citizens through community organizing, these partnerships have been instrumental in convincing politicians and planning board officials that restrictive local regulations are part of the problem.
HUD would like to provide support to these partnerships through the following efforts:

• Regional Seminars/Workshops
• Intensive Local Workshops and On-site Mentoring Efforts
• Regulatory Barrier Toolkit

Regional Seminars/Workshops

The Regional Seminar/Workshops will be planned as stand alone events or organized in conjunction with another housing-related conference or event. Workshop speakers will include local government officials, or other advocacy organizations that have been through successful regulatory barrier removal efforts and therefore have established credibility. Workshops will focus on information participants can put to use quickly (e.g., speakers on how to recruit business owners to support workforce housing or how to convince local politicians to relax exclusionary zoning regulations). The workshops could be devoted to a single, in-depth topic or be diversified with multiple sessions.
Regional Seminars/Workshops are a natural step toward building a network of local partnerships with shared interests while preserving the customization of the program to reflect local issues. Once the leaders of partnerships have been made aware of their similar goals and obstacles and realize that they can support each other to reach common goals, a network will develop quite easily. Even with statewide or regional conferences where partnerships represent different MSAs, we expect there to be similar challenges and similar government structures throughout the same geographical region. The idea of a state or regional network can be included among the topics at the workshop and contact information can be collected for those who want to build a continuing network.

Intensive local Workshops and On-Site Mentoring

Certain local partnerships have made regulatory barriers a priority and will benefit from intensive, on-site guidance and mentoring. The purpose of this outreach is to help such partnerships design and implement an organized, multi-faceted barriers reduction strategy through technical assistance. The technical support is geared to partnerships with strong and committed leadership.
The project team will work with the lead local organization to help identify key players and organize a workshop on Increasing Workforce Housing by Reducing Regulatory Barriers. The project team offers facilitation services, speakers (including team members), assistance with an agenda, identification and recruitment of key participants and/or other services needed by the partnership. Follow up support may include customizing the regulatory barriers toolkit for local purposes, developing a brief economic justification for workforce housing tailored to local conditions, and supporting local partnerships develop one -three year strategies.

Regulatory Barriers Toolkit

Most local organizations have a small staff and a big mission to educate the public about the benefits of affordable housing. The regulatory barriers toolkit will contain a repertoire of materials to be used as part of a broad-based strategy to address local regulatory barriers. It will include fact sheets (e.g., key economic arguments for removing regulatory barriers), templates for media tools like letters to the editor and boilerplate press releases, copies of local “model” laws, PowerPoint presentations and streaming video featuring interviews with local organizations that have “success stories” to share about reducing barriers. By providing content in a user-friendly format, local organizations can dramatically boost their efforts by customizing their message and communicating via various channels to their communities.
HUD encourages supportive national organizations (e.g., The Campaign for Affordable Housing and the National League of Cities) to place a link to the toolkit on their website and promote its resources to their membership in newsletters or speaking opportunities. We will update the toolkit material and other online resources frequently in order to remain relevant.