In Shift, States Step in on Affordable Housing

Shane Zaldivar holds up a sign as crowds jam a Super Bowl event in San Francisco. Zaldivar said the sign was a protest against the lack of affordable housing in the city. There’s been a spate of legislation at the state and federal level this year addressing zoning for affordable housing.Eric Risberg/The Associated Press

As an affordable housing crisis continues to escalate in big cities and small towns alike, states are scrambling to find ways to combat it. This year, there’s been a flurry of state legislation to tackle the problem — with radically different approaches that reflect the highly partisan national divide.

Although local zoning rules typically play out in city council and suburban board meetings, states from South Carolina to Hawaii are getting involved. Sometimes this means removing zoning barriers to building affordable housing. And sometimes state lawmakers take the opposite approach, seeking to prevent cities from requiring that builders include affordable housing units in their developments.

These days, it’s not just the poor who are having trouble finding affordable housing. The middle class is getting hit, too, housing analysts say.

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