Evidence Drives Efforts To Promote Equity in Affordable Housing

Massachusetts Chapter 40B, passed in 1969, discourages exclusionary zoning by requiring all municipalities in the state to ensure that at least 10 percent of their housing stock is affordable.

Affordable, high-quality housing is essential to residents’ health and well-being, but ensuring access to housing nationwide remains challenging; overcoming deep legacies of housing inequity will require broad policy changes. On June 18, 2024, the Urban Institute collaborated with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Policy for Action research program to host a hybrid event, “Policies to Expand Equity-Oriented Affordable Housing.” The event consisted of three panel discussions in which policymakers, researchers, advocates, and other stakeholders explored the development and application of housing policies that affect racial and health equity.

In his opening remarks, HUD’s Solomon Greene, principal deputy assistant secretary for policy development and research, reflected on the need for collaboration and flexibility in addressing the affordable housing crisis. Drawing on his childhood experiences with poverty, Greene spoke about his commitment to “disentangling ZIP Code from destiny” and urged stakeholders to avoid framing affordable housing policy as a debate between investing in low-income areas and housing mobility. Noting that the current housing crisis has multiple causes, Greene called for flexible solutions tailored to local needs, driven by high-quality evidence, and grounded in residents’ lived experience. Greene discussed some HUD programs and policies that reflect this approach, such as the Choice Neighborhoods program to foster housing mobility and the Interagency Task Force on Property Appraisal and Valuation Equity to combat appraisal discrimination.

Measuring Local Impacts of State Policy

In the first panel, “Evidence on State and Local Planning Policies,” Janneke Ratcliffe, vice president for housing finance policy at the Urban Institute, moderated a discussion with participants Aaron Barrall, housing data analyst at the Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies at the University of California Los Angeles, and Noémie Sportiche, researcher at Mathematica and associate at Harvard University, who discussed their research evaluating the equity and impact of existing state planning policies.

Barrall discussed his research (coauthored with Paavo Monkkonen and Aurora Echavarria), which examined the impact of a 2018 California law, adopted through Assembly Bill 686, which creates new requirements for local governments to affirmatively further fair housing. The law requires cities to analyze their affordable housing stock, develop plans to further fair housing, and plan equitably for new housing sites. Researchers looked at eight cities and found that, in general, cities were focusing their planning efforts on lower-impact activities and disproportionately planning for new affordable housing in lower-income regions. The study reached these findings by calculating the cities’ Fair Housing Land Use Score (FHLUS), ranging from –1 to 1, where a higher score indicates more new sites in higher-income neighborhoods; all but two of the cities studied had a negative FHLUS.

Sportiche’s study (coauthored with Hector Blanco) concerned the impact of new construction permitted under Massachusetts Chapter 40B, which was passed in 1969 to discourage exclusionary zoning and requires all municipalities in the state to ensure that at least 10 percent of their housing stock is affordable. Municipalities that exceed this requirement can access a streamlined permitting process for affordable housing. In contrast, developers in areas that fall short of the 10 percent requirement can bypass local zoning laws to build affordable housing. Sportiche and Blanco found that Chapter 40B units were not overly concentrated in lower-opportunity neighborhoods; on the contrary, most were in affluent areas with good schools and few environmental hazards.

Discussing their respective studies, Barrall and Sportiche agreed on the importance of expanding neighborhood choice and acknowledged that strong state leadership can effectively promote equitable development. This approach includes establishing policies that set clear expectations for localities and developers and ensuring compliance with those policies. Sportiche also noted that developers rather than municipal planners were the driving force behind Chapter 40B.

Local Policies To Foster Equity

The second panel, “Evidence on Outcomes for Households and Residents,” was moderated by Christina Plerhoples Stacy, principal research associate in the Metropolitan Housing and Communities Policy Center at the Urban Institute, and discussed the impact of local policies and household-level solutions that promote equity. The panelists were Lisa Bates, professor of urban studies and planning at Portland State University; Christopher Donald, executive director and chief executive officer at the District of Columbia Housing Finance Agency; and Haydar Kurban, professor in the department of economics at Howard University and director of the Center of Excellence in Housing and Urban Research and Policy.

Participants considered the complexities of developing effective local policies to promote equitable housing. Bates shared the results of her research (alongside Amie Thurber and Susan Halverson) on a 2015 Portland, Oregon policy to prioritize individuals with intergenerational neighborhood ties on the waitlist for affordable housing in certain tax increment financing districts in the city. Individuals prioritized through this law can return to neighborhoods where their grandparents or parents once lived and where they still have family connections. Although race is not a factor in determining program eligibility, the neighborhoods included in the program were majority Black before gentrification. Although Bates’ research found that most residents prioritized through this program felt that their lives had improved since moving, she noted that a full suite of community development activity does not accompany the policy. Bates highlighted the need to foster stronger connections to economic advancement, including increasing the supply for moderate-income households and promoting community cohesion in light of reports that Black residents often face microaggressions and social exclusion in these neighborhoods.

Kurban shared results from his organization’s research on inclusionary zoning in Washington, D.C., which requires most new residential developments to include affordable homes. Kurban’s team found that inclusionary zoning can help those who win the lottery for designated affordable units created through this policy access the benefits of living in higher-income neighborhoods, including better health outcomes and reduced crime, but the units tend to be unaffordable to those earning very low incomes and often are not large enough for families. Kurban noted concerns that inclusionary zoning may shift neighborhood dynamics in a way that fails to prevent gentrification as well as sustainability concerns if developers choose to keep affordable units vacant.

Several panelists discussed strategies to help individuals build equity through homeownership. Donald discussed how his organization, which he describes as a boutique investment bank for affordable housing, uses mortgage finance to help moderate-income people from less advantaged backgrounds build equity through homeownership. He described a hybrid mortgage model in which one portion of the mortgage is a conventional 30-year mortgage, and a subsequent portion is a 15-year mortgage. According to Donald, the model can sustain monthly payments at a rate that allows borrowers to maintain a comfortable lifestyle while building and accessing their home equity on a condensed timeline. Bates and Kurban both discussed programs to help families with estate planning and management, including repairs and maintenance for aging homes.

Communities Lead the Way

Practitioners and advocates discussed the impact of housing equity on their everyday activities in the final panel, “Key Insights and Reflections from the Real World.” Michael Neal, senior fellow at the Urban Institute, moderated the panel. Participants included Colleen Green, director of the District of Columbia Department of Housing and Community Development; Helen McIlvaine, director of housing for the city of Alexandria, Virginia; Ingris Moran, lead organizer at Tenants and Workers United; and Angie Rodgers, deputy chief administrative officer for economic development for Prince George’s County in Maryland.

Participants discussed how their jurisdictions and groups are developing a comprehensive, evidence-based toolkit of housing equity strategies. Green, McIlvaine, and Rodgers shared their jurisdictions’ policies to prevent displacement and create affordable housing. Programs and policies mentioned included inclusionary zoning, right of first refusal policies, and home downpayment assistance programs.

Practitioners and advocates agreed on the need for collaboration among stakeholders. Moran discussed her organization’s efforts to support and empower tenants and encourage elected officials to develop more deeply affordable housing and programs to prevent displacement, despite a lack of state-level support. McIlvaine noted that working with groups such as Moran’s has helped her jurisdiction understand local housing needs and shape policy to address them. Rodgers highlighted the importance of advocates who can provide education and facilitate conversations between community activists and policymakers.

Structural Solutions Through Lived Experience

Reaching housing policies that are grounded in evidence and lived experience will require strong collaboration within communities. Greene noted that efforts to understand the structural forces underlying housing inequity must center the lived experiences of people in marginalized communities. “When we center the lived experience and expertise of people who are most affected by policy decisions,” said Greene, “it almost always takes us back to those root causes in interconnected structural solutions that have the potential to finally deliver on lasting equitable housing and health outcomes.”