Pioneer Institute is pleased to sign a coalition letter supporting the federal Identifying Regulatory Barriers to Housing Supply (IRBHS) Act. The Act will require Community Development Block Grant recipients to report whether they have adopted a series of 22 housing policies designed to increase supply and improve affordability amidst a nationwide housing shortage. It will also require such grant recipients to disclose future plans to implement the policies and identify related benefits.
By enforcing these reporting requirements, this legislation will improve transparency over whether and how local governments are addressing the need for more housing options. It will also set the stage for additional research into the causes and consequences of local housing policy.
Signatories of the coalition letter include many market-oriented research organizations and advocacy groups. Such organizations have long recognized that housing production is a crucial vehicle for expanding economic opportunities and lowering the cost of living, especially in high-demand metropolitan areas. The IRBHS Act both asserts the importance of supply-based solutions at a federal level while recognizing that many of the necessary regulatory and permitting reforms must be enacted at the state and local levels.
Sponsors of the bipartisan bill include Todd Young (R-PA) and Brian Schatz (D-HI) in the Senate and Mike Flood (R-NE) and Brittany Pettersen (D-CO) in the House, among others.
