YIMBY News for 2/5

[Eric Budd]

The hidden double standards driving our housing crisis

Vox - Policy

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KEYWORD SCORE: 59.77. affordable, apartment, construction, density, development, growth, homeowner, house, housing, housing crisis, housing price, housing stock, mobility, project, rent, renter, single-family, supply, urban, yimby, zoning

[image: A row of apartment buildings on a tree-lined street, some still under construction.] Malone Park Commons in Memphis. | Courtesy of Andre D. Jones. It would not be much of an exaggeration to say that, for more than a century, American urban planning has been devoted to layering on ways to all but ban apartment buildings. And so, as the US now tries to shift out of the anti-density gear that’s driving our housing affordability crisis, policymakers are finding that there are obstacles hiding in a lot of places. Like, a *lot.* States and cities are already working, little by little, to rol

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There Is No Blanket Solution to the Housing Affordability Crisis

Next City

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KEYWORD SCORE: 49.53. affordable, affordable housing, apartment, construction, density, development, homeowner, house, housing, housing and urban development, housing crisis, income, project, rent, single-family, supply, transportation, urban, zoning

Construction workers build a new rental apartment building in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on Saturday, October 4, 2025. (Photo by Ted Shaffrey / AP) America is stuck. Millions of American households struggle with rising rents, aging homes and shrinking affordability. Experts on both sides of the aisle recognize the root causes of the current crisis, including decades of underbuilding and inconsistent local regulation. Often the proposed solutions might sound appealing – whether it’s President Trump’s push to restrict single-family home sales or introduce half-century mortgages, or proposals l

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Homes on Wheels Are Filling a Big Gap in Portland

Next City

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KEYWORD SCORE: 47.67. affordable, affordable housing, condo, development, homeowner, house, housing, housing cost, income, parking, preservation, project, public hearing, rent, urban, walk, zone, zoning

Peggy on the porch of her tiny home. (Photo by Catie Gould / Sightline Institute) *This article was originally published by Sightline Institute.* The Maine family needed a cheaper place for one of them to live. And quickly. It was 2024. Synia Maine, 56, had just developed a back injury so severe that she had to retire from her career as a hairstylist a decade earlier than planned. Suddenly, she had increased medical bills and no income. Her daughter-in-law, Ember DeVaul, recounted that they’d explored multiple options to try to keep Synia in Arizona, where she lived. Even the lowest-cost housi

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Olympia Seeks to Boost Sound Transit with Long Overdue Permit Reforms

The Urbanist

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KEYWORD SCORE: 27.03. bus rapid transit, construction, development, downtown, growth, height limit, house, project, rent, transportation, urban, walk, zone

Sound Transit could soon get a big leg up in its ability to permit long-planned light rail projects, if a set of reforms advancing at the Washington State Legislature are able to make it across the finish line in the coming weeks. Despite receiving voter approval to build its projects — which are deemed essential public facilities under state law — Sound Transit regularly runs into delays when it comes to local permit approval. Those delays, which have been most acute in cities where local leaders have been either hostile or indifferent to participating in the expansion of the regional transit

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Longmont City Council considers taller buildings near sugar factory

Daily Camera Boulder News

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KEYWORD SCORE: 26.52. affordable, affordable housing, development, growth, height limit, housing, project, rent, transit-oriented, urban, zoning

Longmont City Council members are mulling a question that tends to make people sit up straighter in their chairs: how tall is too tall for Longmont? The council’s conversation at a Tuesday night study session focused on a potential city code change that could allow taller buildings in a limited area of the city, primarily around the abandoned sugar factory on Sugar Mill Road, and adjacent planning areas tied to redevelopment and future transit. The council did not take a formal vote on new height limits or a new zoning district, and no final decisions were made. Instead, the council directed s

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Illinois’ Low-Cost Library Program Takes on the Justice Gap

Next City

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KEYWORD SCORE: 22.81. construction, house, housing, income, project, urban

Addison Public Library librarians Sara Lock, left, and Lesley Cyrier, right, are part of a statewide program offering digital literacy and access for Illinois residents needing to connect to civil court. (Photo by Victor Hilitski / Illinois Answers Project) *This story was originally published by the Illinois Answers Project.* Last fall, when an anxious patron rushed into the Addison Public Library asking how to file a court document, Sara Lock felt prepared. She’d grown up depending on the library herself and had just completed training so she could help people facing the court system alone.

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