Minneapolis, and now Oregon cities are banning exclusive single-family zoning. Now, we’re asking: will smaller multifamily housing types lead to greater affordability? Read on…
Will Banning Single-Family Zoning Make for More Affordable Homes?
Minneapolis effectively eliminated single-family zoning in order to undo decades of segregation and create more affordable housing options. Other states are watching closely.
by Deonna Anderson
YES!- Journalism for People Building a Better World
posted Jul 31, 2019
Nothing captures the housing affordability crisis as well as this fact: In no single city, state, or other municipality in the U.S. can someone earning minimum wage afford a two-bedroom apartment.
This is compounded by the fact that housing prices continue to rise, and cities don’t have the ability (and in some cases, the physical space) to add more affordable housing to help keep costs down.
So, Minneapolis changed the rules, and others are taking notice. In December 2018, the city approved a plan that allows for duplexes and triplexes, effectively eliminating the market incentive to build more single-family housing.
Now Oregon is following in the footsteps of Minneapolis, with a bill that the Legislature passed in June and which Gov. Kate Brown [has signed] is expected to sign in the coming weeks. The bill would allow for “middle housing”—duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes—on parcels now designated for single-family housing in cities with populations of at least 25,000. Smaller cities with populations starting at 10,000 people also are required to allow duplexes.
The law would affect 2.8 million Oregonians, according to the Sightline Institute, a nonprofit think tank that conducts research on many social issues in the Pacific Northwest, including housing.
Many cities and states across the U.S. are struggling to meet the needs of their poorest residents. The National Low Income Housing Coalition’s “Out of Reach” report, which documents unaffordable housing across the U.S., hammers home the fact that the average rent on a two-bedroom apartment far outstrips the income of full-time minimum wage workers in every state.
In many cities across the country, most residential land is zoned for detached single-family homes only, the New York Times recently reported. But zoning for higher-density housing is not a solution to the ongoing lack of housing availability and affordability.
“I don’t think that it’s a solution to immediately fix everything,” said Michael Andersen, a senior researcher at Sightline. “It’s not an adequate solution for everything that ails us in the housing market. It shouldn’t be represented as such.” Andersen said he believes allowing this type of multi-unit housing is part of a long-term investment that will slowly change the housing landscape in Oregon, and in which effects will be seen decades after implementation.
“The great advantage of middle housing is that … it’s a politically viable way to add relatively lower cost homes,” he said. He noted that this type of housing would not be “deeply” affordable, but that it allows neighborhoods to gradually become more densely populated so they can support mass transportation, retail, and jobs that are walkable from residences, and community cohabitation that’s good for extended families and seniors aging in place.
Minneapolis has been applauded by some policy experts and politicians for “banning” single-family zoning and potentially increasing density, and some residents are taking steps to ensure they will be able to stay and thrive in their city.
Me’Lea Connelly, who is the vision and strategy lead at Village Financial, a community development financial institution that is geared toward “economic renaissance in Black communities,” said the region is now in a shift when it comes to housing.
“I would say it’s similar to the way that Seattle and Portland and some other fringe cities that have developed over the years where it just creeps up on you,” Connelly said, referring to smaller cities that often don’t receive national media attention. Minneapolis has been quietly changing for years, she said. “All of a sudden, you look up, and there’s just no occupancy.”
Connelly said that now is the time that the Minneapolis area “either needs to transition into higher density, or it’s going to become a very economically segregated town, like, you’re going to end up pushing everybody [who] can’t afford a certain rate out of that space.”
Comment:
The New York Times editorial (June 16, 2019) applauded Minneapolis’s political leadership, stating: “A Minneapolis plan to eliminate single-family zoning points the way for other cities desperately in need of housing.” Recently the Oregon legislature passed HB 2001, making this state the first to compel cities larger than 10,000 population to allow multifamily buildings in all residential zones. Soon, Portland city council will deliberate on the Residential Infill Project, the city’s strategy to implement the state statute. This does not prevent single detached units from being built; it simply does not prohibit attached dwellings and flats. The new rules are expected to accelerate the rate of new housing construction including redevelopment of existing sites. We have already witnessed the occurrence of demolitions replaced by supersized luxury houses. This is not the type of housing most newly forming households need. In response to this trend, the draft rules for RIP limit the size of single-family homes to 2,500 sq. ft..
Rezoning cities is a step in the right direction. It is not a definitive solution to housing affordability, however. We will have to increase participation by public housing authorities, non-profit providers, land trusts, and others in the social sector. And, let’s not forget the role of property taxation. A land value tax will over time dampen residential land prices, leading to increased housing affordability.
