What is Missing Middle Housing?

Housing Hub

When weighing solutions to the growing housing affordability crisis in the U.S., it is critical that buyers, builders, and housing advocates think beyond traditional single-family homes. While the large house with a white picket fence in a quiet, suburban neighborhood has long been a calling card of the American Dream, focusing on single-family homes no longer serves the needs of our communities. Expanding the range of available housing types will be essential to solving the crisis.

NAC Blog: Zoning 101: Exclusionary zoning as a barrier to housing production

NAC

The first comprehensive city zoning ordinance was created in New York City in 1916, in response to a 42-story building built in a Manhattan neighborhood that cast a seven acre shadow, leaving many of its neighbors in the dark. At the same time, New York and other cities across the country were grappling with industrial warehouses and factories cropping up near residential neighborhoods. What started as a public health measure, to protect citizens from pollutants and toxins emitted from industrial sites, quickly turned into a tool to segregate neighborhoods.