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Blockers and Pillars come from Up for Growth’s housing framework.

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October 1, 2026 SPEAKING | KEYNOTE

Permission is not production

Remarks at the Natural State Housing Summit in Little Rock on the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, where the chain between a federal law and a built home breaks down in Arkansas, and why capital is part of supply.
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May 28, 2026 FOOTNOTES | NOTE

Building near transit pencils out for cities

Where a home is built changes what it costs a city to serve it. The fiscal math on infill and the housing math point in the same direction.
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May 25, 2026 FOOTNOTES | NOTE

The road to more housing still runs through permitting

Transportation money is one of the few levers Washington can pull on local land use. The design problem is calibration: incentives too soft change nothing, too blunt and the politics collapse.
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May 24, 2026 FOOTNOTES | NOTE

A bipartisan housing bill clears the House, but the Senate test still matters

A 396–13 vote signals unusual agreement on housing. Whether that consensus survives the Senate, and whether the manufactured-housing provisions change what gets built, are separate questions.
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May 24, 2026 FOOTNOTES | NOTE

Washington’s scissor stair reform shows how code fixes can unlock more homes

Building codes decide floor plates and capital stacks as surely as zoning decides density. Washington’s single-stair change is a test of how much housing a technical code fix can unlock.
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May 14, 2026 FOOTNOTES | NOTE

Terner’s simulator shows why housing policy is local

The same zoning or financing reform can produce very different results in Denver, San Diego, and Tucson. What varies is which constraint actually binds in a given market.
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April 2, 2026 MEDIA | PODCAST

Build to rent is collateral damage

I joined The Rent Roll to explain how the Road to Housing Act's BTR provision froze capital, why the seven-year sell rule is unworkable, and what Congress should fix
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March 24, 2026 WRITING | ESSAY

Why limiting investment time horizons for build-to-rent communities is bad for affordable housing

I explain why treating purpose-built rental neighborhoods like scattered investor-owned homes risks shrinking the capital stack behind new housing supply.
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December 12, 2025 SPEAKING | KEYNOTE

Housing needs a system that can deliver

Remarks on why America's housing shortage is a systems problem, how fragmented governance produces underbuilding, and why a modern housing framework is needed to align local action, state capacity, federal investment, and accountability.
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October 15, 2021 WRITING | ESSAY

Courage at all levels

I examine why local housing reform needs support from state and federal institutions, especially when capacity, incentives, mandates, and political risk shape implementation.
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February 28, 2020 WRITING | ESSAY

Solutions to the housing crisis come in all sizes – including small homes

I use accessory dwelling units to show why legalizing housing is only the first step when financing, permitting, construction, and tax barriers remain.
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January 17, 2020 WRITING | ESSAY

New Rochelle, New York: A case study in how focusing on transit can increase housing options

I recount how New Rochelle rezoned its downtown around its train station, and why the Build More Housing Near Transit Act aimed to encourage that approach.
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October 18, 2019 WRITING | ESSAY

Part One of our Series on the Broken Housing Ecosystem: Impact Fees

I introduce a series on the broken housing ecosystem by showing how impact fees that rise as growth slows can undercut the development cities need.
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April 25, 2019 WRITING | ESSAY

The Cautionary Tale of Portland’s Inclusionary Housing Policy

Noel Johnson and I examine Portland's permit data after inclusionary housing took effect and argue the policy was reducing housing production at most income levels.
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March 15, 2019 WRITING | ESSAY

Housing is the environmental issue of our time

I connect housing, transportation, land use, and environmental outcomes, asking how where we build homes changes travel, land consumption, and emissions.
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January 18, 2019 WRITING | ESSAY

A Housing Agenda for Rural America

I use a visit to Mason County, Washington, to show that rural communities face their own housing shortage, and what local, state, and federal policy could do.
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