Housing has long been a cornerstone of the American dream and a vital engine of economic growth and community well-being. Yet across the United States, a persistent imbalance between supply and demand has led to rising costs, declining affordability, and limited workforce mobility. The shortage has cost states billions in lost economic output, personal income, and jobs.
Balancing housing supply with growing demand is essential for improving affordability, driving economic growth, and supporting workforce mobility.
Makinizi Hoover, head of Housing Policy Advocacy, talks about the issue and why the U.S. Chamber recently released a housing playbook, hosted “Building for Growth: Housing Solutions for a Stronger Economy,” and is creating a new housing initiative to examine solutions to increasing housing supply across the country.
Makinizi Hoover, head of Housing Policy Advocacy, speaks during the U.S. Chamber’s inaugural Housing Summit.Why is the Chamber launching this initiative?
Abundant and affordable housing is critical for the growth of our economy. Right now, we have a supply and demand problem. We are short about 4.7 million homes, with estimates even up to 8 million. And last year we only built 1.3 million.
If we keep going at this rate, we’re never going to close the supply gap.
This has pushed the average age of a home buyer up to 40, and it’s affecting families all across America from achieving the American dream.
Why now?
We’re stepping in right now because the business community has a role to play in increasing accessibility to housing by increasing supply. There’s never been a more bipartisan time to address the housing shortage across our government than right now. Conversations are happening in the at the federal level, the state level, and the local level.
Why is housing an issue of concern for the business community?
Housing availability is directly tied to economic growth. Businesses are feeling their inability to attract and retain the talent they need to grow in the places that they want to grow. When businesses can’t attract and retain the talent they need to fill their positions, or when they can’t expand because there’s not enough housing to fit their workforce, it directly affects the economy.
What needs to happen to address these housing concerns?
Addressing this shortage needs to happen on the local level, the state level and the federal level. And so it really takes and all of us joining together to push this forward.
No one entity can solve this itself.
Makinizi Hoover, Head of Housing Policy Advocacy at the U.S. Chamber
How can industry leaders and lawmakers work together for a solution?
There’s not sweeping federal legislation that’s going to solve this housing shortage. We need a concerted effort from all players at the table. So that needs to be the federal, the local, and the state business leaders. It needs to be the policy makers, the nonprofits all pushing for increasing housing supply.
There’s a lot of different routes we can take.
But if we just keep bubbling this conversation up to increasing housing supply across all areas, we’ll be able to push something forward.
What makes housing such a critical foundation for strong and growing communities?
A house that’s built on a strong foundation is a house that is built to last. Increasing housing supply is laying that foundation so that communities continue to grow and thrive – along with businesses – so that American families are able to achieve the American dream.
The Chamber has released a housing playbook for 6,600 communities across America. Tell us about it?
This playbook includes pathways to increase housing supply for each of the respective communities. It includes data on migration, on job growth versus the price of the median income. It includes data on job growth versus incomes in the area and how much an average price is.
This data can be used from everyone ranging from local Chambers of Commerce and economic development leaders to organizations and nonprofits working on increasing housing supply in their area.