How Bad Zoning Broke the Housing Ladder with Dr. Emily Hamilton | Let People Prosper Show Ep. 178

​If you’re trying to understand why starter homes have vanished, why marriage and birth rates are falling, or why your kids can’t afford to move out, you won’t find a clearer guide than Dr. Emily Hamilton. Her latest piece in Governing, “To Support Families, Repair the Housing Ladder,” is a must-read. It makes a simple but devastating point: 

We’ve eliminated the low rungs of the housing ladder—and now we’re shocked people can’t climb it.

Starter apartments? Outlawed. Manufactured housing? Zoned out.SROs? Gone. Family-friendly rentals? Blocked by NIMBY politics. And now the U.S. is flirting with population decline for the first time ever. This conversation explains why—and what to do about it.

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