Addressing the Affordable Housing Crisis: The Crucial Role of Elected Officials and Multifamily Developments in Rust Belt Cities

The affordable housing shortage in U.S. cities is reaching a crisis level and here in City of Rockford and other rust belt cities, we see this crisis. The difference is that not many multifamily products are being built. Low rents and high costs don’t attract private investment unless there are subsidies to fill the gap/difference.

It’s an honor when the few elected officials who get this step up and advocate for pivotal development work, knowing that filling the gap will attract more residents, help neighborhoods grow, and create new jobs and long term tax revenue. Unfortunately, those visionary and business minded elected can be few and far between.

I believe it’s time we stand, visibly and vocally, alongside these elected officials who are focused on solving their communities’ persistent problems through creative solutions. I also believe it’s time we no longer allow those who are uninformed, and choose to remain that way, in these positions of power. They are harmful to a community’s future and the residents they claim to represent.

“More multifamily homes are being built to meet the demand — with 2022’s multifamily home production reaching the highest level since the mid-1980s — but only 5% of homes built last year were considered accessible for low- or moderate-income renters, the report says. And the number of people who are homeless and unsheltered is up 35% since 2015, a surge the panelists attributed to the lack of affordable housing in U.S. cities…

…To ensure residents of all income levels can afford to live in their cities, local leaders can also support down-payment assistance for first-home homebuyers as well as operating subsidies for owners of affordable housing developments to lower costs for low-income renters, said Rachel Heller, CEO of the advocacy organization Citizens’ Housing and Planning Association. Zoning policies are also key to create more inclusionary affordable housing, she said.

“Zoning is the tool that our communities use to determine what can be built and what cannot be built — and that translates into who can live there and who does not have the opportunity to live there,” Heller said.”