Texas Democrats and Republicans may be approaching a bipartisan consensus on how to tackle the state’s housing affordability crisis at a time when a majority of Texans say they spend too much money on keeping a roof over their heads.that includes calls to relax local zoning regulations that determine what kinds of housing can be built and where.
Housing advocates and policy experts have increasingly placed a good chunk of the blame for that shortage on cities’ zoning regulations that regulate, among other things, how much land a single-family home must sit on and whether other kinds of housing like duplexes and small apartment buildings can be built alongside single-family homes. Such rules limit how many homes can be built and drive up housing costs as a result, they say.
That agreement crosses partisan lines, with 69% of Democrats and 61% of Republicans telling pollsters that housing costs take up too much of their budget. Liberals see loosening those same restrictions as a way to combat climate change: allowing more housing options closer to job centers, they say, would reduce commutes by car from far-flung suburbs.