Housing historically has been a local issue that was handled by cities and counties. The rising crisis of housing cost and availability, however, has brought more attention from state governments. States have enacted more than 700 laws in 2022 and 2023 related to housing.

The focus of this podcast is the nexus of housing and transportation, and particularly transit-oriented development. We sat down with Cameron Rifkin, a policy expert at NCSL who tracks housing legislation, and Doug Shinkle, who heads NCSL’s transportation program, to discuss housing, transportation and the efforts by state legislators to take on challenges in both those areas. 

They discussed the types of legislation passed, how some states have passed legislation directly addressing transit-oriented development and why parking requirements for housing developments are sparking conflict.

Resources

• Characteristics of Middle Housing, Missing Middle Housing
• Economic Mobility Enacted Legislation Database, NCSL
• Expanding Affordable Housing Opportunities: Zoning and Land Use Case Studies, Bipartisan Policy Center
• Housing and Homelessness Legislation Database, NCSL
• “Housing and Homelessness Toolkit,” NCSL
• “Increasing the Housing Supply by Reducing Costs and Barriers,” NCSL
• “Middle Housing: Filling a Gap in Available Housing Options,” NCSL
• A Series of Policy Briefs on Zoning, Land Use, and a Solution to the Nation’s Housing Shortage, American Enterprise Institute
• Transit-Oriented Development, Federal Transit Administration