Across the country, local leaders are grappling with the impacts of the housing supply crisis and are actively pursuing locally driven housing supply solutions. With a shortage of several million housing units, the urgent need for action is clear.
As mayor of Athens, Ohio — a small and vibrant university town in the Appalachian region with a population of just under 25,000 residents — like most communities, my city has significant challenges with housing. Many residents in my city are severely cost-burdened, with limited access to housing due to a supply deficit. Our aging housing stock requires substantial restoration, with 31% of housing units having at least one pressing structural need, such as the lack of adequate plumbing or kitchen facilities. Combined with flat wages among our residents and growing demand for housing from our student population as a college town, the need for both housing production and preservation is immediate.
Athens’ housing shortage is driven by multiple factors. Development has slowed significantly because of rising construction and infrastructure costs. As a small city, Athens also faces additional market and infrastructure barriers to housing development, including a limited number of builders, lack of infrastructure to support additional housing without straining existing systems or pushing them to their breaking point and limited household incomes, making new housing projects more difficult to start and more costly to build.
We know the direct consequences of unmet housing needs compound broadly if left unaddressed. The aging state of housing in Athens is an impediment to better public health outcomes. Homelessness, including student homelessness, is a growing concern, driven by rising housing costs and growing competition for limited housing that is still within the financial grasp of middle- and low-income families, continuing to push out our most vulnerable residents.
For me, addressing my community’s housing challenges is personal. Overcoming these obstacles requires intentional policy solutions, strategic partnerships and cross-sector collaboration to ensure that all residents have access to safe, stable and attainable housing. Athens was awarded a $2 million grant in November 2024 to build new affordable housing from Welcome Home Ohio, a state initiative signed into action by Governor Mike Dewine. The grant is helping build at least eight new housing units on vacant city-owned lots. The new owner-occupied homes will be affordably priced between $150,000 and $180,000. The revenue from the sale of homes will be invested into additional housing advancements.
Partnerships, like the one between Athens and the State of Ohio, are occurring around the country. That’s why I announced Mayor Muriel Bowser of Washington, D.C., and Mayor Mark Shepherd of Clearfield, Utah to serve as co-chairs representing local governments on America’s Housing Comeback.
America’s Housing Comeback
America’s Housing Comeback, a Housing Supply Accelerator initiative, is a leadership table for housing policy leaders and innovators in the public and private sector to meet the moment for housing together. This leadership table will accelerate and build on successful housing supply initiatives at the local level by enhancing federal-local partnerships and public-private partnerships.
Federal-Local Partnerships: Improving Intergovernmental Support
By improving federal support for local governments and the private sector, America’s Housing Comeback will accelerate promising and proven strategies to support local governments’ efforts to close the housing supply gap in cities and towns.
Public-Private Partnerships: Fostering Growth at the Local Level
America’s Housing Comeback will utilize the partnerships and systems approach model pioneered by the Housing Supply Accelerator Playbook to align and enhance both local governments and the private sectors’ efforts on the ground to accelerate housing supply.
America’s Housing Comeback Advisory Members
Alexandria, VA
Redmond, WA
Tempe, AZ
Pittston, PA
Houston, TX
Memphis, TN
The moment for housing is now — the impact of the housing supply crisis is being felt by small and large as well as urban, suburban and rural cities. The scale of need is larger than any one local government, or one level of government that’s why uniting and aligning a diverse coalition of public and private stakeholders is needed to address housing supply needs and challenges at the local level.
As local leaders, this challenge can feel overwhelming, but we have a path forward with America’s Housing Comeback.
Below, hear from members of America’s Housing Comeback speak at Congressional City Conference 2025:
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