America’s housing crisis isn’t complicated to diagnose. For decades, local governments have made it expensive, complicated, and legally fraught to build new homes, leading to a chronic mismatch between demand and supply. The national shortfall of homes is now somewhere between 4 million and 7 million units, and a generation of young families feels permanently priced out of the neighborhoods where they work. We know what the problem is, but for a bitterly divided Congress, the question remains: Can idealists on both sides stomach a bipartisan answer?
As it stands, the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, introduced by Sens. Tim Scott (R-SC) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), is the most serious attempt to address partisan divisions on homeownership. For those of us focused on market solutions, ROAD is a test of whether we can maintain a coherent position on housing even when the politics get uncomfortable.
The bill’s strongest provisions are its
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