In May 2024, National League of Cities, in partnership with the American Planning Association, released the Housing Supply Accelerator Playbook: Solutions, Systems, Partnerships. The playbook is a resource designed to support communities in navigating their housing supply challenges.
Key insights from the playbook include:
- The national housing supply shortage demands collective momentum and shared responsibility from each sector of the housing market to achieve meaningful progress.
- Housing supply challenges involve myriad factors: construction and development; finance; land use and regulations; and infrastructure and workforce. A systems approach to addressing housing supply recognizes that all these factors are interconnected— and looking at scalable solutions and promising practices offers a pathway to address local housing supply challenges.
- Multi-layered solutions are needed to address housing supply challenges at the local level. The combination of local housing strategies, in coordination with all housing stakeholders, will propel communities forward, one step at a time.
- An actionable level of consensus — not perfect consensus — is needed to make progress to tackle today’s housing supply challenges.
To build upon this resource, NLC expands a sample of case studies featured in the playbook. These case studies provide more detail about such policies, programs and strategies as public-private partnerships, pre-approved plans, missing middle housing, small-scale development training and more.
Case Studies
Learn more about what different-size municipalities are doing to address their local housing supply challenges.
Small Cities
Chelsea, MA: Island End River Coastal Flood Resilience Project
Population: 40,787
The Island End River Coastal Flood Resilience Project is a comprehensive approach to addressing coastal flood risks in the Cities of Chelsea and Everett. With more than 500 acres at risk due to the area’s topography and hydrology, this project implements hybrid gray and nature-based flood resilience measures.
Claremore, OK: Pattern Zone Development
Population: 19,580
Claremore is a small college town and commuter city experiencing a surge in demand for housing. After evaluating the city’s current and predicted market pressure and reviewing home and rental demand data, the City of Claremore determined that municipal policy would be essential to building enough new housing to meet this new demand.
Waterloo, IA: Sustainable Construction and Design Program
Population: 67,341
The Waterloo City Council partnered with Hawkeye Community College to facilitate hands-on learning for students enrolled in its Sustainable Construction and Design program as part of the city’s 2030 Vision Plan. The City of Waterloo, formerly the factory city of Iowa, has faced the challenge of aging housing stock, brownfield sites, and blighted properties.
Mid-Size Cities
Buffalo, NY: Green Code: Unified Development Ordinance
Population: 278,349
The City of Buffalo adopted its Buffalo Green Code to better align development codes with the smart growth and sustainability principles of the comprehensive plan. Effective since 2017, The Green Code is a unified development ordinance (UDO) and part of the city’s form-based code, which serves as a complete overhaul of the city’s previous zoning code from 1953.
Fayetteville, AR: Pre-Approved Architectural Designs for Residential Development
Population: 93,949
The City of Fayetteville is piloting a program to streamline residential construction in its Downtown and Walker Park neighborhoods by offering pre-approved architectural designs for residential development. The program aims to improve design outcomes and expedite the permitting process, saving residents time and money while providing new housing options.
Tempe, AZ: Hometown for All Housing
Population: 180,587
Tempe’s Hometown for All initiative, established by the Tempe City Council in January 2021, is a program designed to foster growth of affordable and workforce housing options through innovative funding strategies. Through data analysis, Tempe was able to identify a critical need for affordable and workforce housing options. In order to achieve future development goals and to further diversify housing stock, the city of Tempe developed the Hometown for All initiative to boost necessary housing supply.
Large Cities
Austin, TX: Small-Scale Developer Training Program
Population: 961,855
The Austin Small Developer Training Program was funded by the Austin Housing Finance Corporation in a public-private partnership with the nonprofits which implemented the program: HousingWorks Austin and Capital Impact Partners. The program offers a unique opportunity for small-scale developers, especially those who were historically excluded from the market, to play a larger role in addressing the region’s housing challenges.
Memphis, TN: Missing Middle Housing
Population: 633,104
The Memphis 3.0 Comprehensive Plan includes a focus on encouraging housing supply, particularly missing middle housing options. Driven by the plan, city officials examined potential barriers to missing middle development in their zoning and building codes. The city updated the local building code to make buildings like triplexes and quadplexes easier to build.
San Antonio, TX: Strategic Housing Implementation Plan
Population: 1,434,625
San Antonio’s Strategic Housing Implementation Plan (SHIP) demonstrates a collaborative approach to addressing housing needs. Together, the City, County, housing authority and housing trust blend federal and state funds, tax credits, bonds, and public-private partnerships to create and preserve affordable homes.
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