UCLA Housing Voice

Joined by a 20-year veteran of Fannie Mae, Shane shares findings from his work on a proposed new model for building renter wealth: shared prosperity rental housing. Show notes: Building Renter Wealth: An Evaluation of Shared Prosperity Rental (SPR) Housing Program Design and Feasibility.Executive summary for the SPR report.“Renting is Terrible, Owning is Worse.”precedingfollowingOne to four: The market potential of fourplexes in California’s single-family neighborhoods.The Multifamily Impact Council’s Multifamily Impact Framework.Enterprise Community Partners’ Renter Wealth Creation Fund website.Colorado Renter Rewards program website.

Fixed-rate mortgages are expensive, but adjustable-rate mortgages are volatile — but do they have to be? Kevin Erdmann pitches an alternative that captures the best qualities of both. This is part 9 of our series on misaligned incentives in housing policy. Show notes: A Suggested Mortgage Amortization Structure: Fixed Amortization, Adjustable Principal.Mortgage Lending Standards with Kevin Erdmann.

This episode features highlights from part 8 of our series on misaligned incentives in housing policy. Was the housing market really oversupplied in the mid-2000s? Kevin Erdmann says no, and he explains how this misunderstanding is at the root of present-day affordability problems.

Was the housing market really oversupplied in the mid-2000s? Kevin Erdmann says no, and he explains how this misunderstanding is at the root of present-day affordability problems. This is part 8 of our series on misaligned incentives in housing policy. Show notes: Housing Was Undersupplied during the Great Housing Bubble.Getting Corporate Money Out of Single-Family Homes Won’t Help the Housing Affordability Crisis.Mortgages Outstanding by Credit ScoreFollow-Up: Mortgages by Credit ScoreA Suggested Mortgage Amortization Structure: Fixed Amortization, Adjustable Principal.

Shane makes a guest appearance on USC's Lusk Perspectives to talk state housing law, barriers to missing middle housing and condos, managing transportation systems in densifying cities, building wealth for tenants, and more. Show notes: Overview of 40 years of California ADU reform by the California Housing Defense Fund.State of Los Angeles County Housing and Neighborhoods.“Renting is Terrible, Owning is Worse.”precedingfollowing“Shared Prosperity Rental Housing,”

Why do many U.S. states build so few condos? Muhammad Alameldin explains the role of construction defect liability laws — and how to fix them. This is part 7 of our series on misaligned incentives in housing policy. Show notes: Construction Defect Liability in California: How Reform Could Increase Affordable Homeownership OpportunitiesThe Financial Impacts of Construction Defect Liability on Housing Development in California.The First Step Is The Hardest: California’s Sliding Homeownership Ladder.

In which types of homes are people safest from fires? Alex Horowitz shares research showing that multifamily is safer than single-family housing, newer homes are much safer than older homes, and that a single stairwell’s just as good as two. This is part 6 of our series on misaligned incentives in housing policy. Show notes: Small Single-Stairway Apartment Buildings Have Strong Safety Record.Modern Multifamily Buildings Provide the Most Fire Protection.How States and Cities Decimated Americans’ Lowest-Cost Housing Option.Here Come the Tall Skinny Houses.UCLA Housing Voice episode 97, Single-Stair Buildings and Eco-Districts with Michael Eliason.

We’ve been grappling with trade-offs between stricter building codes and declining affordability for over 100 years. Benjamin Schneider helps us trace the history. This is part 5 of our series on misaligned incentives in housing policy. Show notes: The Unfinished Metropolis: Igniting the City-Building Revolution.106 Years Ago She Predicted Today’s Housing Crisis. What if we’d Listened?The Housing of the Unskilled Wage Earner: America's Next Problem.How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York.A brief history of tenements in the US.

Your city just legalized “missing middle” housing in its zoning code… now what? With Memphis, Tennessee, as a case study, John Zeanah and Andre D. Jones discuss the hidden non-zoning barriers to developing small apartment buildings — and how to lower them. This is part 4 of our series on misaligned incentives in housing policy. Show notes: Beyond Zoning: Hidden Code Barriers to Middle-Scale Housing.Making missing middle pencil: The math behind small-scale housing development.Memphis, TN Amends Local Building Code to Allow up to Six Units Under Residential Building Code (IRC) to Enable Missing Middle Housing.'Beyond Zoning' Abstract: In recent years, planners have made zoning reform a key priority to enable housing supply, including “missing middle” housing … This article explores the barriers beyond zoning that can hold back development of middle-scale housing. It begins with a background on why these lesser-known codes matter for housing diversity. This is followed by a case study of a project in Memphis, highlighting the non-zoning barriers posed to the development of an infill collection of cottages and small apartment buildings, and how they were overcome. Next, the article delves into specific categories of barriers, from building codes and fire safety mandates to infrastructure and local ordinances, explaining how each can impede middle-scale housing projects. Finally, it concludes with an Action Steps for Planners section, offering implementable strategies for reforming codes and coordinating across departments to unlock middle-scale housing development.

The hosts gather to celebrate the 100th episode of UCLA Housing Voice. We also answer listener questions and announce the first book for our book club. Show notes: Stuck: How the Privileged and the Propertied Broke the Engine of American Opportunity.How Progressives Froze the American Dream.The Affordable City: Strategies for Putting Housing Within Reach (and Keeping it There).Where the Hood At? Fifty Years of Change in Black Neighborhoods.Do strict land use regulations make metropolitan areas more segregated by income?It’s time to end single-family zoning.https://escholarship.org/uc/item/13x3n8zrDoes social housing crowd out private construction? (Working paper).What state housing policies do voters want? Evidence from a platform-choice experiment.https://www.hcd.ca.gov/housing-open-data-tools/statewide-housing-plan-dashboardhttps://easyreadernews.com/aes-ruling-against-redondo-may-open-door-to-builders-remedy-developments-statewide/Episode 81: How New Zealand Passed Its Ambitious Zoning Reforms with Eleanor West See remaining show notes and each host's favorite episodes at https://www.lewis.ucla.edu/2025/10/21/100-the-big-100-listener-questions-re-meet-the-hosts-and-book-club

North American buildings are built different — literally. Councilmember Jesse Zwick explains how the organization behind our unusual standards is built to fail, and he makes the case for a new approach. This is part 3 of our series on misaligned incentives in housing policy. Show notes: Out of Code: The Hidden Costs of US Building Standards.Episode 78 of UCLA Housing Voice, on the relationship between building height and construction costs (in the US).Wikipedia article on the Grenfell Tower fire in London.Stephen Smith’s Slate article about elevator building codes.Episode 98 of UCLA Housing Voice, on elevator building code in the US and Canada.Strong Towns article featuring the quote by Lawrence Veiller.

Elevators in the U.S. and Canada cost 3–5 times as much as elevators in other high-income countries. Stephen Smith explains why and how our well-intentioned elevator standards make cities less safe and accessible. This is part two of our series on misaligned incentives in housing policy. Show notes: Elevators.Single-Stair Buildings and Eco-Districts with Michael EliasonAbstract: Americans make over 20 billion trips per year by elevator – twice the number of trips made by what people think of as mass transit. Despite the association between elevators and high-rises, the average elevator in the United States only has four landings, with elevators being as much a tool for convenience and accessibility as for able-bodied necessity. But despite being the birthplace of the modern passenger elevator, the United States has fallen far behind its peers. Elevators in the United States have remained a fairly niche item in residential settings – expected in a high-rise or a big new mid-rise apartment building, but otherwise largely absent from the middle-class home. In absolute terms, the United States has fewer elevators than Spain – a country with one-seventh the population, and fewer than half the number of apartments. And behind its lack of elevators, North America faces a crippling cost problem. The price to install an elevator in a new mid-rise building in the United States or Canada is now at least three times the cost in Western Europe or East Asia. Ongoing expenses like service contracts, periodic inspections, repairs, and modernizations are just as overpriced. High-income countries with strong labor movements and high safety standards from South Korea to Switzerland have found ways to install wheelchair-accessible elevators in mid-rise apartment buildings for around $50,000 each, even after adjusting for America’s typically higher general price levels. In the United States and Canada, on the other hand, these installations start at around $150,000 in even low-cost areas.

This is the first episode of our series on misaligned incentives in housing policy. Michael Eliason shares insights from his book, Building for People, on building code reforms and eco-district redevelopment projects throughout Europe. Show notes: Building for People: Designing Livable, Affordable, Low-Carbon Communities.Youtube video of Vauban, an eco-district in Freiburg, Germany.City of Paris website on the Clichy-Batignolles eco-district, with photos.Episode 59 of UCLA Housing Voice, on the Costs of Discretion with Paavo Monkkonen and Mike Manville.Google Maps view of the Confluence eco-district in Lyon, France and the neighborhood directly to the north.Episode 14 of UCLA Housing Voice, on Family-Friendly Urbanism with Louis Thomas. Check out Stephen Smith’s single-stair and elevator reform tracker at the Center for Building in North America website.

Housing vouchers provide critical assistance to low-income renters, but roughly 40% of vouchers go unused, in part due to difficulty finding landlords to accept them. Vincent Reina shares findings from a pilot program that instead gives cash assistance directly to tenants. Abstract: This article examines a new rental assistance program in Philadelphia, called PHLHousing+, that disburses unconditional cash payments directly to tenants to eliminate their housing cost burden. The program is designed as a 2.5-year randomized controlled trial that aims to test the impact of direct- to-tenant cash assistance on household outcomes compared with traditional housing vouchers. The motivations for the program range from the need for more flexible tools that respond to the diverse needs of low-income renters to the desire for a robust evidence base on effective policies to improve household outcomes. The article also discusses the evolution of the idea behind PHLHousing+ before the COVID-19 pandemic through to its development, using knowledge obtained from upscaling local pandemic emergency rental assistance programs. Finally, the article describes the program’s implementation, including participant enrollment, strategies to minimize benefits loss, and cash disbursement mechanisms. It reflects on the lessons learned throughout this process, such as the importance of flexible funding and a strong research-practice partnership. The goal is to provide guidance to those planning similar programs and inform local and national policy, especially on direct-to-tenant, cash-based housing assistance. Show notes: The Future of Rental AssistancePHLHousing+: A Randomized Controlled Trial of a Cash-Based Alternative to the Housing Choice Voucher Program in Philadelphia, PA: Housing Outcomes in Year Two.And a link to the working paper here.Episode 17 of UCLA Housing Voice, on using fair market rents to improve housing vouchers with Rob Collinson.Episode 87 of UCLA Housing Voice, on housing voucher lease-up rates with Sarah Strochak.Episode 88 of UCLA Housing Voice, on improving voucher outcomes with Dionissi Aliprantis.Episode 65 of UCLA Housing Voice, on reducing homelessness with unconditional lump sum cash payments with Jiaying Zhao.Expanding Access to Rental Assistance: What Do We Know and Where Do We Go From Here?

Our next interview will be out soon. In the meantime, we're asking for listener questions for a special recording celebrating our 100th episode)(!!), and ideas for a UCLA Housing Voice book club. Send 'em to shanephillips@ucla.edu.

Seattle’s low-rise multifamily zones have produced more than 20,000 townhomes over the past 30 years. Tobias Peter discusses the impacts on affordability, homeownership, and more — including lessons for other cities. Show notes: Low-Rise Multifamily and Housing Supply: A Case Study of Seattle.The full catalog of AEI Housing Supply Case Studies.Land-use reforms and housing costs: Does allowing for increased density lead to greater affordability?Exposing Severe Methodological Gaps: A Critique of the Urban Institute's Panel Study on Land Use Reforms.Episode 77 of UCLA Housing Voice: Upzoning with Strings Attached with Jacob Krimmel and Maxence Valentin.

Episode Summary: Every year, more than two million low-income households receive rental assistance through the Housing Choice Voucher program, a federal program that helps renters afford housing on the private market. Currently, only about one-quarter of those eligible for vouchers receive them due to lack of program funding, though Democrats and the Biden administration have proposed expanding it. For our first episode of 2022, Rob Collinson of the University of Notre Dame joins us to talk about how we can get more bang for our buck from housing vouchers, the benefits and drawbacks of the program’s design, and how his research has already helped shape voucher policy reforms in metro areas across the U.S.

For people with disabilities, ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft can be a lifeline or a pain — or both. Abigail Cochran shares what she learned from individuals with disabilities about what’s working and what’s not. Show Notes: How and why do people with disabilities use app-based ridehailing?99% Invisible podcast episode on the “curb cut effect.”Framing availability and usability of transportation for people with disabilities.Use of app-based ridehailing services and conventional taxicabs by adults with disabilities.

Shared micromobility programs offering scooters and bikes have exploded across the US in recent years, but the benefits haven't been shared evenly. Anne Brown joins to discuss the equity goals and mandates cities are requiring of operators, and which seem to be most effective. Show Notes: Mobility for the people: Equity requirements in US shared micromobility programshttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcmr.2024.100020From Paper to Practice: Shared Micromobility Requirements and Outcomes Small fares for small modes: Discount Ride Programs and Equity in US Shared Micromobility ProgramsOperationalizing Equity: US Micromobility Equity Requirements DatabaseTaxing Shared Micromobility: Assessing the Global Landscape of Fees and Taxes and Their Implications for Cities, Riders, and Operators.LADOT Year 1 Snapshot: A review of the 2019-2020 dockless vehicle program

Do people drive less because they live in buildings that don’t provide parking, or do they live in buildings that don’t provide parking because they drive less? That question has huge implications for how we build and rebuild our cities, yet researchers have struggled for decades to answer it conclusively. UCLA professor Adam Millard-Ball joins us to discuss new research that finally — we hope — puts the question to bed. Taking advantage of San Francisco’s affordable housing lottery, Millard-Ball and colleagues find that (as-good-as-)randomly assigning tenants to different buildings and neighborhoods has substantial impacts on their transportation choices, with lower parking ratios resulting in less driving and more transit use. We talk about what this means for housing and parking policy, and what it says about the behavioral shifts needed to make cities more affordable, accessible, and sustainable. Show notes: What do residential lotteries show us about transportation choices?Free summary of article at Transfers MagazineDoes TOD need the T? On the importance of factors other than rail accessOpinion: Here’s an easy way to fight L.A.'s traffic and boost transit ridership — reward commuters who don’t driveThe drive to work: The relationship between transportation access, housing assistance, and employment among participants in the welfare to work voucher programThe poverty of the carless: Toward universal auto access