Why a White House Plan to Fund Office-to-Housing Conversions Isn't Working Yet

Sacramento, California, is increasing the number of affordable housing units built in the city by implementing deed restrictions that limit prices and require occupancy by low-income residents, providing free permit-ready building plans for accessory dwelling units, and prioritizing quick approvals by the city government.

The successful earthquake rebuild model in Christchurch, New Zealand, was a 60-40 cost-sharing agreement between the central government and local governments designed to be centralized and collaborative with contractors doing the rebuilding. This design could be a model for future disaster reconstruction across the country.

The California Legislature, inspired by a decades-old Massachusetts affordable housing bill, recently passed SB 35. However, a few differences distinguish the two bills. In Massachusetts, the 40B bill fast-tracks development projects that include 20% affordable units in cities that have below the mandated amount of affordable housing. California’s bill rewards affordable housing projects, but it also rewards projects with above-average income housing. Still, the bill is a big step forward in the fight for more affordable housing at the state level.

In Memphis, a creative blight-reduction initiative called 25 Square Blocks broke down the city into blocks. Inspectors were able to quickly identify all the violations and fix them, using the same amount of funding, but less time, as the old call-and-respond model.

In 2014, the California legislature passed legislation to create the Urban Agriculture Incentive Zones (UAIZ), offering tax breaks to landowners to turn their vacant lots into community farms. However, the legislation has failed to create any kind of community impact: only 4 lots have received the tax break in the 4 years that the program has existed. Landowners have been disincentivized by five-year lending terms and insufficient implementation.

Cities such as Honolulu and Seattle are piloting AI tools like CivCheck to streamline the permitting process and flag incomplete applications before they get to planners’ desks, freeing up employees for more complex face-to-face work. In Honolulu, the tech has helped reduce the median wait time to receive a new building permit by about 40 percent.

In Spain, Higueruela transformed wind farm revenues into municipal investments—funding schools, transportation, senior care, and local jobs—which stabilized the town's declining population and created a sustainable economic model that now provides 40% of its annual budget. A key success factor includes allowing the community to negotiate and reject projects that don't serve local interests.

Cambridge’s new zoning reform lessens housing restrictions by allowing property owners and developers to build six-story apartments — through a process called upzoning — to accommodate more residents on a single lot in areas that were previously restricted to single-family homes. The city previously aimed to build 350 new units by 2040, but with the new zoning reform, that estimate has grown to 4,880.

A cooperative in Switzerland is building sustainable apartments using recycled materials and green building practices to create carbon-neutral communal living spaces. These “cluster apartments” cut down on living space per person and save energy.

Residents of mobile home communities are coming together to collectively buy the land their houses are on and establish cooperatives. It ensures their rent stays affordable long term, and some state governments are making it easier to do so to help address housing affordability crises.