LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA — It was unanimous.
When asked about their biggest topic of concern during a Thursday press conference kicking off the U.S. Conference of Mayors annual meeting, a group of more than 40 mayors responded in unison: housing.
“Our nation faces an affordable housing crisis,” said San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria, USCM’s first vice president. “This is a crisis that is impacting every community across our nation, regardless of its size, ZIP code or political makeup. We are all dealing with it, and unfortunately, this is not a new problem, but we've done more than talk about it. Mayors have delivered.”
Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson said his city needs 26,000 housing units “to address future growth and existing need.” The city has entitled 6,000 units over the past three years — more than in any three-year span over the past 45 years. “And this is happening all over the country,” he said.
Redmond, Washington, has been “very intentional” about creating more housing through significant investments in public transit and transit-oriented development, inclusionary zoning and a multifamily tax exemption, said Mayor Angela Birney. “All of these … are tools that all of these cities are using, if their states and the national government allows them to use them, to create more housing and more affordability,” she said.
“There’s so many opportunities as long as we have a shared partnership, not just on the state level, but also on the national level, to leverage our resources,” said Hallandale Beach, Florida, Mayor Joy Cooper.
Lansing, Michigan, Mayor Andy Schor said his city is using tax increment financing to incentivize housing development, and the state is providing funding, but “we need the federal government to engage.”
The ROAD to Housing Act, which passed the House on May 20 and is pending further action in the Senate, is a crucial lever for cities in their efforts to build affordable housing, several of the mayors said.
“We know that there's gridlock in Washington, and when we see that there might be an opportunity for Democrats and Republicans together to have a national focus on streamlining investing in innovation and resources to boost housing production, it helps all of us,” Richardson said.
“America's mayors are here to speak directly to [House] Speaker [Mike] Johnson and [Senate Majority] Leader [John] Thune to urge them to come together in a bicameral fashion and get this legislation to the President's desk,” Gloria said. “America's partners in Washington, we have a generational opportunity in front of us, and America's mayors are ready to get this bill signed into law and get more shovels into the ground, so that we can put more roofs over people's heads at prices that they can afford.”
During a lunchtime plenary session following the press conference, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said the state created its own housing crisis by prioritizing process over production, but said it has finally broken through its regulatory gridlock with what he called some of the most progressive land use reforms in the country. Home construction has increased by 59%, and permitting time has been reduced by 56% since 2019, he said.
“We just radically shifted our mindset as it relates to land use and zoning, and we have a deep, dare I say, abundance mindset, and we have broken through finally, and we're on the other side of some of these regulatory thickets,” Newsom said.
“We’ve got to produce results,” he added. “This is the issue of our time.”
