Hello and welcome to the weeds, I'm Jerusalem Demsys.

As most of you know, I write a lot for Vox about housing policy, and there's something

going on right now in the UK that caught my interest.

Here in the United States, we're facing a severe housing shortage.

A recent report by Freddie Mac estimates 3.8 million housing units are desperately needed

right now to meet demand.

How we've gotten to this point is no mystery.

In much of the United States, particularly in the places where people really need to live

for good jobs, it's illegal to build enough homes.

Not only is it illegal to build a giant apartment building in large parts of Manhattan, it's

also illegal to build small apartment buildings, quadplexes, duplexes, town homes, and even

mother-in-law suites in your own backyard.

These regulations don't just restrict the type of building, they restrict a bunch of other

things that drive up costs.

For instance, minimum lock sizes.

These cause new single-family homes to be much larger than they need to be.

It squeezes the supply of small single-family homes and makes it a lot harder for first-time

home buyers to find an entry-level house.

As a result, housing activists and experts have mostly advocated for states to step in

where localities have failed and begin taking responsibility for their housing crises, notably

places like California, Oregon, Connecticut.

They've all taken steps to enact statewide zoning reform.

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