In the first installment of NAHREP’s 2025 Policy Priorities Webinar Series, David Garcia, Policy Director at Up for Growth, discussed the importance of zoning and land-use reform in addressing the housing supply and affordability crisis.
At last month’s Homeownership and Housing Policy Conference in Washington, D.C. NAHREP released the 2025 Policy Priorities, which will guide the organization’s advocacy efforts throughout the coming year. A blend of tried and true methods and bold new policy proposals, these Priorities provide a roadmap to expanding access to sustainable Hispanic homeownership by addressing the nation’s most pressing housing challenges.
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.
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.