Housing
Blog
Portland gets serious about housing by slashing red tape
“The proposals, brought by Commissioner Carmen Rubio, would reduce bike parking requirements, allow residential units on the ground floor, relax rules for architectural reviews and temporarily suspend some requirements to hold neighborhood meetings in the areas where they want to build,” reported the Oregonian. As noted by Commissioner Rene Gonzalez ...
Blog
Cities can slash homeless housing costs by ditching subsidies
Cities can slash homeless housing costs by ditching subsidies by John Seiler | May 10, 2024 Why reject government subsidies? After all, everyone pays huge amounts in taxes. Might as well get some of it back. But that’s just what’s happening in California’s housing crisis. In part of a new ...
Blog
Insurance crisis moves from hinterlands to big cities
Insurance crisis moves from hinterlands to big cities By John Seiler | May 3, 2024 The home-insurance crisis hitting California and other states is now thwarting cities’ efforts to house the homeless. All mortgages require insurance up front. No insurance, no homes for the homeless, or anybody. That directly will ...
Blog
Read latest on push for more government housing
Renaming ‘public housing’ doesn’t alter its sordid history
Politicians and activists have long tried to dress old, failed, sometimes contentious and often intrusive ideas in new clothing. Gun control has become “gun safety.” Illegal aliens are “undocumented immigrants.” The politically charged term abortion has been softened for the palate to “women’s reproductive health.” Often labels are changed due ...
Blog
Read the latest on California's housing crisis
Cities can and should streamline housing approvals
Convoluted approval processes can mean lengthy delays and costlier developments, which in turn can mean less and more expensive housing. Fortunately, many city leaders are not only recognizing this but taking action to streamline how their own governments are doing things. Since taking office in 2022, Los Angeles Mayor Karen ...
Blog
It’s build or bust in California, as subsidies can’t cut it
It’s build or bust in California, as subsidies can’t cut it by Kenneth Schrupp | April 19, 2024 With a 4.5-million home shortage driving California to have the 49th-worst ratio of residences to residents in the nation, efforts to increase up-front affordability without increasing the abundance of homes is resulting ...
Blog
Read latest from PRI's Free Cities Center
Creating ‘Free Cities’ as Plan B for global societies
Editor’s Note: The Free Cities Foundation has no connection to the Pacific Research Institute’s Free Cities Center, but many of its ideas align with ours. The Foundation helps create real-world privatized cities across the globe, where market forces provide government services. PRI’s Center promotes myriad ideas to improve cities, including ...
Blog
Part 3
Why for-profit housing succeeds when subsidized housing fails
Los Angeles Case Study Part 3 Why for-profit housing succeeds when subsidized housing fails By Thomas Irwin | March 21, 2024 So what lessons can we draw from what Los Angeles has seen with Executive Directive 1, the city’s effort to streamline regulations for affordable-housing projects? First, people passionate about ...
Blog
Part 2
Why for-profit housing succeeds when subsidized housing fails
Los Angeles Case Study Part 2 Why for-profit housing succeeds when subsidized housing fails By Thomas Irwin | March 15, 2024 In the first part of this series, I reviewed the one bright spot in Los Angeles’ efforts to increase housing supply and reduce housing costs – the success of ...
Blog
Learn about newly proposed Solano County city
New city’s fate will show if California is serious about housing
Surveys consistently show that owning a home is one of the keys to overall happiness, which no doubt explains why debates about housing prices are so emotional – and so dominant in the Legislature and at city councils. Thanks to low supply and the resulting price surges, many Californians now ...
Portland gets serious about housing by slashing red tape
“The proposals, brought by Commissioner Carmen Rubio, would reduce bike parking requirements, allow residential units on the ground floor, relax rules for architectural reviews and temporarily suspend some requirements to hold neighborhood meetings in the areas where they want to build,” reported the Oregonian. As noted by Commissioner Rene Gonzalez ...
Cities can slash homeless housing costs by ditching subsidies
Cities can slash homeless housing costs by ditching subsidies by John Seiler | May 10, 2024 Why reject government subsidies? After all, everyone pays huge amounts in taxes. Might as well get some of it back. But that’s just what’s happening in California’s housing crisis. In part of a new ...
Insurance crisis moves from hinterlands to big cities
Insurance crisis moves from hinterlands to big cities By John Seiler | May 3, 2024 The home-insurance crisis hitting California and other states is now thwarting cities’ efforts to house the homeless. All mortgages require insurance up front. No insurance, no homes for the homeless, or anybody. That directly will ...
Read latest on push for more government housing
Renaming ‘public housing’ doesn’t alter its sordid history
Politicians and activists have long tried to dress old, failed, sometimes contentious and often intrusive ideas in new clothing. Gun control has become “gun safety.” Illegal aliens are “undocumented immigrants.” The politically charged term abortion has been softened for the palate to “women’s reproductive health.” Often labels are changed due ...
Read the latest on California's housing crisis
Cities can and should streamline housing approvals
Convoluted approval processes can mean lengthy delays and costlier developments, which in turn can mean less and more expensive housing. Fortunately, many city leaders are not only recognizing this but taking action to streamline how their own governments are doing things. Since taking office in 2022, Los Angeles Mayor Karen ...
It’s build or bust in California, as subsidies can’t cut it
It’s build or bust in California, as subsidies can’t cut it by Kenneth Schrupp | April 19, 2024 With a 4.5-million home shortage driving California to have the 49th-worst ratio of residences to residents in the nation, efforts to increase up-front affordability without increasing the abundance of homes is resulting ...
Read latest from PRI's Free Cities Center
Creating ‘Free Cities’ as Plan B for global societies
Editor’s Note: The Free Cities Foundation has no connection to the Pacific Research Institute’s Free Cities Center, but many of its ideas align with ours. The Foundation helps create real-world privatized cities across the globe, where market forces provide government services. PRI’s Center promotes myriad ideas to improve cities, including ...
Part 3
Why for-profit housing succeeds when subsidized housing fails
Los Angeles Case Study Part 3 Why for-profit housing succeeds when subsidized housing fails By Thomas Irwin | March 21, 2024 So what lessons can we draw from what Los Angeles has seen with Executive Directive 1, the city’s effort to streamline regulations for affordable-housing projects? First, people passionate about ...
Part 2
Why for-profit housing succeeds when subsidized housing fails
Los Angeles Case Study Part 2 Why for-profit housing succeeds when subsidized housing fails By Thomas Irwin | March 15, 2024 In the first part of this series, I reviewed the one bright spot in Los Angeles’ efforts to increase housing supply and reduce housing costs – the success of ...
Learn about newly proposed Solano County city
New city’s fate will show if California is serious about housing
Surveys consistently show that owning a home is one of the keys to overall happiness, which no doubt explains why debates about housing prices are so emotional – and so dominant in the Legislature and at city councils. Thanks to low supply and the resulting price surges, many Californians now ...
