Opinion | Kamala Harris’s Proposals Won’t Fix the Housing Crisis - The New York Times

Vice President Kamala Harris correctly identified one of America’s biggest problems when she said that “there’s a serious housing shortage.” America’s affordable-housing crisis exacerbates wealth inequities, leads low-income parents to live in neighborhoods with less upward mobility and reduces our country’s capacity for economic growth, innovation and adaptation to regional shocks. Unfortunately, her proposed solutions seem too small and too poorly targeted to generate enough housing to make America’s most productive places more affordable. Our next president could do much to unwind America’s housing shortage, which has its roots in regulations enacted by innumerable municipalities. But “not in my backyard” towns won’t start building out of the goodness of their hearts. To unleash enough new building to bring affordability, we need to dust off our history books and remember how this country raised the legal alcohol drinking age. The National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 demanded s

Vice President Kamala Harris correctly identified one of America’s biggest problems when she said that “there’s a serious housing shortage.” America’s affordable-housing crisis exacerbates wealth inequities, leads low-income parents to live in neighborhoods with less upward mobility and reduces our country’s capacity for economic growth, innovation and adaptation to regional shocks. Unfortunately, her proposed solutions seem too small and too poorly targeted to generate enough housing to make America’s most productive places more affordable. Our next president could do much to unwind America’s