By Robbie Sequeira, Stateline.org
In U.S. cities huge and small, mayors are discovering their tenures formed by housing shortages, and efforts to construct extra properties, so that individuals of any earnings can afford a spot to reside.
In a sequence of conversations, mayors of huge cities akin to Atlanta and Seattle, in addition to of midsize Midwest cities like Columbus, Ohio, and Madison, Wisconsin, informed Stateline that housing is the No. 1 precedence for mayors to sort out.
“Housing is by far probably the most vital points dealing with each mayor in America. It impacts every little thing from security to the workforce to transit,” stated Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther, who is also the quick previous president of the U.S. Convention of Mayors. “Mayors are on the entrance strains of our nation’s housing disaster. And it’s a disaster.”
Greater than half of mayors in a current bipartisan survey anticipate affordability of their cities to say no over the following 12 months, and practically all say their residents are dissatisfied with present housing prices. The survey was launched in June by the U.S. Convention of Mayors, together with the Bipartisan Coverage Middle and the Capital One Insights Middle.
And whereas a big share of big-city mayors are Democratic, members of each events are in search of some nonpartisan options. Republican Mark Shepherd of Clearfield, Utah, and Democrat Rex Richardson of Lengthy Seashore, California, are urgent Congress to broaden rental help and inexpensive housing applications, whereas additionally partnering with enterprise leaders to spice up provide. The 2 mayors assist lead a coalition referred to as Mayors and CEOs for U.S. Housing Funding.
Housing is a pivotal difficulty within the upcoming mayoral races in Minneapolis, New York Metropolis and Seattle.
However whilst mayors set bold targets, they’re typically working inside slender lanes of authority. Whereas metropolis halls can zone land, streamline permits and make investments native {dollars}, they will’t override state preemption legal guidelines or management climbing development prices and rates of interest. In lots of municipalities, the success and attain of a mayor’s housing imaginative and prescient hinges as a lot on what state lawmakers enable as on what native voters demand.
No less than 30 states have barred cities from enacting lease management. Different elements not associated to the push-and-pull of residence rule between state and native governments cap how a lot mayors can affect housing inside their borders.
“It’s a must to analyze what you may management and what you may’t,” Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell stated. “Rates of interest, tariffs, the price of supplies — these are situations we will’t repair. What we will do is plan smarter, allow sooner and fund what’s inside our attain.”
A quick-growing metro space
Ginther, the Columbus mayor, might speak about housing all day. He informed Stateline he can’t think about a mayor within the nation who doesn’t have housing persistently on their minds.
As Columbus grapples with report development and rising housing prices, Ginther says the town’s greatest problem isn’t political will, it’s scale. Columbus wants 200,000 extra housing models within the subsequent 10 years to assist carry down the price of rents and possession, he stated.
Ginther, who’s serving his second time period, not too long ago proposed making a Division of Housing Stability. He stated that mayors want to make use of the expertise of their workplaces and companies to sort out completely different features of the housing disaster, from serving to residents discover an inexpensive residence to enabling them to maintain it.
He’s additionally stated that metropolis voters’ willingness to approve big-dollar bond points is a “buy-in” that many cities can be lucky to have.
Since 2019, the town has used $250 million in bonds to construct about 4,000 rental models. Voters are being requested to assist one other $500 million housing bond this November, alongside with different bonds for parks, police and hearth, and highway paving. Greater than half the town’s residents are renters.
Ginther stated it’s part of a $1.9 billion infrastructure package deal — combining metropolis, county, state, federal and personal assets — to achieve the 200,000-unit objective.
“It’s bold, but when we decide to housing the best way we’ve dedicated to jobs and workforce growth, we’ll get it executed.”
In keeping with census information, the Columbus metropolitan space ranks among the many fastest-growing U.S. metros. In the meantime, the Ohio Housing Finance Company studies that from 2016 to 2021, the state noticed a 38% decline in vacant models obtainable on the market or lease, and through the identical interval noticed a 13% improve in models categorized for seasonal, leisure or occasional use, akin to short-term leases.
“Town has created jobs and we’ve got one of many fastest-growing economies within the Midwest, however we didn’t construct sufficient housing in earlier years to maintain up with that. And we’ve got been solely doing it a sure means,” stated Ginther.
He added that the dimensions of housing points is greater than anyone jurisdiction.
“We’d like regional and state companions to step up, too,” Ginther stated. “I’ve stated I’ll do half the [Franklin County] area’s housing wants … however I would like my suburban and exurban neighbors to do their half.”
The squeeze in small cities
In northern Utah’s Davis County, Clearfield is proudly the house of Hill Air Drive Base. For the reason that Nineteen Forties, a big share of navy air power personnel have labored and lived close by.
However Shepherd, the mayor, says his metropolis — with about 32,000 folks and as soon as the blue-collar “starter residence capital” — has remodeled right into a market that navy households can not afford.
“It’s scary,” Shepherd, a Republican who was elected in 2013, informed Stateline. “We was once the place folks got here for his or her first properties. Now, 4 airmen are splitting a two-bedroom residence.”
Regardless of restricted land, Clearfield has permitted or constructed 4,000 properties in 5 years, many via denser, vertical growth. Shepherd, a longtime actual property agent, is pushing for Utah to broaden condominium development and artistic financing instruments, together with via a brand new $300 million state mortgage program.
“All people desires possession,” he stated. “If somebody desires to purchase, we’ve got an obligation to assist make that occur.”
However he’s frank in regards to the political headwinds: resistance to density, neighboring cities blocking townhome initiatives, and a state legislature desirous to preempt native management.
“Density is a swear phrase for elected officers,” Shepherd stated. “Some cities simply received’t construct, and when the carrot doesn’t work, generally it’s important to carry out the stick.”
Shepherd stated housing challenges are a relentless subject amongst his friends throughout the nation, particularly in communities tied to navy installations. As a member of the Nationwide League of Cities’ Navy Communities Council, he often exchanges concepts with different mayors dealing with related shortages.
“I haven’t had one mayor of a navy metropolis inform me they’re completely tremendous with housing,” he stated. “In all places, it’s the identical story. … The demand is excessive, the provision is tight, and servicemembers are getting priced out.”
Stress from exterior metropolis borders
In Atlanta, one of many financial and cultural hubs of the South, Mayor Andre Dickens has seen the town get some good headlines in its efforts to handle housing points.
In keeping with Realtor.com’s August 2025 rental report, the median asking lease in metro Atlanta dropped 13.6% year-over-year, one of many largest declines among the many 50 greatest U.S. metros, tied with Las Vegas. Dickens credit the development to an intentional surge in housing manufacturing.
In just below 4 years, Dickens has reached 60% of his objective to construct or protect 20,000 models of lower-cost housing by 2030, he stated. Since taking workplace, he stated that 12,000 models are already constructed or underway, aided by an Reasonably priced Housing Strike Drive that meets month-to-month to fast-track permits and safe funding for these initiatives.
“Atlanta was seen as inexpensive in comparison with New York or California, however our incomes weren’t maintaining,” Dickens informed Stateline. His method, along with approving a lift in metropolis staff’ pay final 12 months, was to assist create extra housing. “We made it our mission to construct for low- and moderate-income households and to cease folks from being rent-burdened.”
Among the many initiatives Dickens touted to Stateline was the Atlanta Beltline, an city redevelopment alongside 22 miles of rail line that delivered 569 inexpensive housing models final 12 months — nearly double its annual objective. The purpose is 5,600 models within the space by 2030. Funding typically combines private and non-private sources, and Dickens stated that because the mayor, it’s his duty to carry these teams to the desk.
He additionally famous that the town is coping with an inflow of residents each from Atlanta’s suburbs and from cities which have their very own housing challenges, akin to Chicago, New Orleans and Chattanooga, Tennessee.
“Some suburban or rural counties don’t spend money on homelessness or affordability, so these residents ultimately land in cities,” stated Dickens, who is also a co-chair of the Nationwide Housing Disaster Process Drive, a coalition of elected officers.
“We are able to’t push them away,” he stated. “We simply must take care of it, as a result of cities are the place folks come for hope and assist. That’s why mayors should lead with compassion and technique.”
Kitchen-table phrases
In Wisconsin, Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway informed Stateline that the capital metropolis’s housing problem is straightforward however daunting:
“We weren’t constructing sufficient housing to maintain up with our inhabitants development,” stated Rhodes-Conway, who was elected in 2019. “We constructed ourselves into an issue.”
Madison is Wisconsin’s fastest-growing metropolis, however housing provide lagged far behind. When Rhodes-Conway took workplace in 2019, the town’s rental emptiness fee hovered round 1-2%, she stated, far beneath the wholesome 5-6% vary.
Since then, Rhodes-Conway and the Metropolis Council have opened new funding channels and loosened zoning guidelines to hurry development. Town’s Reasonably priced Housing Fund, as soon as centered solely on federally funded Low-Revenue Housing Tax Credit score initiatives, now consists of cash for co-ops, group land trusts and homeownership efforts, she stated.
“It was vital to ask of us to assume creatively about how we create affordability,” she stated.
Her administration additionally works to protect current inexpensive inventory via the Effectivity Navigator program, which upgrades older residences for vitality effectivity in change for rent-stability commitments. On the regulatory facet, Madison has up to date its zoning code to clear “ache factors” akin to density limits and onerous approval processes that after stalled initiatives, she stated.
The outcomes are tangible, as the town has accomplished greater than 17,000 new properties since 2015, with one other 5,000 below development. Beneath a regional plan, Madison goals so as to add 15,000 extra between 2025 and 2030, aligning with Dane County’s housing objectives.
Rhodes-Conway sees the function of a housing-focused mayor to be each a policymaker and a translator.
Mayors want to debate housing not in zoning jargon, she stated, however in kitchen-table phrases: tales about dad and mom who can’t afford to purchase the place they grew up, the seniors priced out of longtime properties, or staff enduring farther commutes for an inexpensive, cost-efficient residing state of affairs.
“Speaking about NIMBYs and AMIs [area median incomes] doesn’t assist,” she stated. “Speaking about your neighbor or your child who can’t discover an residence, that’s actual life.”
Private expertise
Harrell, the Seattle mayor, says he’s making an attempt to show certainly one of America’s priciest markets right into a working mannequin of coordinated, city-level housing governance. When Harrell took workplace in 2022, he declared himself a “housing mayor.” Seattle’s inhabitants development and its million-dollar residence costs demanded greater than a single division might handle, he stated.
“I noticed a metropolis as giant as Seattle had a fragmented housing coverage,” Harrell stated. “So we created a housing subcabinet — each division that touches housing now rows in the identical course.”
And when the state authorities does make modifications to housing or zoning legal guidelines, that’s when mayors have to strike, he stated.
In 2023, for instance, Washington state allowed for the constructing of duplexes, triplexes and different types of “center housing” on land previously zoned just for single-family properties. Seattle instantly adopted the change.
Harrell shepherded a $970 million property tax levy permitted by voters in 2023 to assist pay for inexpensive housing. Town’s new 20-year housing plan will increase zoning capability to permit for 330,000 new housing models, roughly double the goal of the town’s earlier plan. His administration has additionally accelerated allowing, which he stated has “sped up some initiatives by one to 2 years.”
For Harrell, who hopes to win a second time period in November, altering affordability within the metropolis harks again to his dad and mom’ first residence in Seattle.
“The primary home my mother and pop purchased right here in Seattle continues to be there,” Harrell stated. “Similar situation, similar footprint. … It hasn’t had an addition. They purchased it for $6,000 and offered it for $30,000. That very same modest home at present is price over 1,000,000 {dollars}.”
He then drew a parallel to his personal expertise shopping for a starter residence within the Eighties.
“The primary home I purchased, I used to be making lower than $40,000 a 12 months, and I purchased it for $87,000 with my school roommate, at about twice our earnings,” he stated. “That home, too, is price about 1,000,000 now. I ought to’ve held onto it.”
These two properties seize the dimensions of the affordability disaster, he stated.
“That’s the context we’re working in,” he stated. “And if I’m asking people who find themselves already scuffling with lease or mortgages to pay extra into inexpensive housing via a levy, I’ve to be the evangelist. I’ve to point out that we’re placing our personal pores and skin within the recreation.”
Stateline reporter Robbie Sequeira may be reached at rsequeira@stateline.org.
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