We Can Bring Back Starter Homes

At the risk of stating the obvious, there are a lot of great reasons to own a home.

Homeowners build wealth and equity as they pay for their housing. They have the stability of knowing their landlord can’t jack up the rent or force them to move out. Owning a home in a good school district is not only a good financial investment but also a good investment in a child’s future.

But these days, new families and young people who want to buy their first home have fewer and fewer options.

Hard work used to be enough for a middle-class working family to be able to afford a home and put down some roots. Now, with housing prices skyrocketing, young people feel like they’re failing to reach an essential benchmark in life. The truth is, this isn’t about a personal failure; it’s about a policy failure. A series of short-sighted policy decisions has made homeownership expensive and out-of-reach for too many, in part by making the “starter home” all but a relic.

America’s housing supply now has a massive shortage. One of the reasons for it is that restrictive local regulations have made it impossible in many places to build the bungalows, townhomes, duplexes, and quadplexes that once characterized the supply of starter homes. Now, a generation is paying the price. Middle-class working families need affordable starter homes in the vicinity of their workplaces, and they are now nearly impossible to find.

If we want the next generation of working people to have a shot at homeownership and the benefits that come with it, we have to bring back the starter home. We should start by untangling the web of policy failures that are forcing starter homes into extinction. In Illinois, I am fighting to make that change. It’s time to build with the Building Up Illinois Developments (BUILD) Plan.

Here is how the BUILD Plan will bring back starter homes in Illinois:

Legalizing More Housing

Through decades of snowballing local rules, many cities and towns have all but outlawed starter homes. Bans on smaller homes, two-flats and duplexes, as well as onerous parking requirements, have been particularly limiting. It shouldn’t be easier to build mega-mansions than it is to build middle-class homes. The BUILD Plan addresses this by legalizing the kinds of housing we need to make sure homeownership stays within reach for working-class families in Illinois. The idea is to add a few homes in each community all across the state.

Cutting Red Tape

Anyone building a new home needs to get permits from the city or town before they start construction. That is a good thing, and the BUILD Plan does not change that. But in many places, getting a permit becomes a never-ending slog of drawn-out timelines and unpredictable fees, making it an insurmountable obstacle. Outdated and slow permitting processes stop being barriers to unwanted or unsafe construction and instead become barriers to all home construction. The BUILD Plan streamlines the permitting process statewide so that developers know right from the start what fees to expect and how long they will have to wait for a decision.

Upgrading Upfront Infrastructure

Open land that has inadequate sewer or stormwater infrastructure can’t be built on. The BUILD Plan provides funding that cities and towns can use to address these kinds of upfront infrastructure barriers. More lots ready to build means more housing.

Providing Down Payment Assistance for First-Time Homebuyers

The steps I outlined above will increase the amount of housing, which will bring down the cost of a home. But if we truly want the creation of new starter homes, we have to do more to help working families pay for them. The BUILD Plan provides those families with funding to make the down payment on a first home purchase.

Who is Opposed to the BUILD plan? Special Interests and Status Quo Politicians.

Despite the fact that everyone understands that our housing shortage is unsustainable, certain local politicians and special interest groups are always at the ready with a new reason to protect the status quo.

The most vocal critics are those who claim that the BUILD Plan allows massive developments in quiet neighborhoods that will cause them to ‘lose their character.’ That is not at all what this legislation does. No one is going to wake up to a new high-rise condo building in their backyard on account of the BUILD Plan. It doesn’t operate by making a massive change to any single community. It makes small changes that allow building one or two or three new homes each year in each community. By doing so, we will create a new supply of starter homes and other middle housing distributed throughout the state without changing the character of any community.

Here is the truth: we are at a crossroads. We have to decide if we want to be a country where working-class families of teachers, nurses, and firefighters can afford to buy homes, or whether we’re going to let homeownership be a privilege for rich people who can cobble together six-figure downpayments. I know which future will make our state stronger. That is why I am fighting to have the legislature pass the BUILD Plan. Let’s make middle-class housing for working families more available and more affordable.