We Have New Leadership and a New Year—We Need New Housing, Too

The author contends that the United States faces a critical housing shortage that exacerbates economic inequality, public health risks, and climate change. By removing exclusionary zoning regulations and promoting infill, multi-family, and mixed-use development, the U.S. can reduce transportation emissions—the country's largest carbon source—and create a more equitable urban environment. The text calls for the federal government to incentivize local zoning reform through programs like the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) to enable '15-minute neighborhoods' and low-carbon construction.

• The United States is experiencing a significant housing shortage, with a Freddie Mac study estimating a deficit of more than 3.3 million units across 29 states.
• Housing policy is directly linked to climate change because current development patterns encourage sprawl and auto-dependency, contributing to transportation emissions, which are the largest source of carbon emissions in the U.S.
• Exclusionary zoning regulations—including single-family zoning, minimum parking requirements, height restrictions, and accessory dwelling unit (ADU) bans—prevent the construction of affordable, low-carbon, and location-efficient housing.
• The document proposes that the federal government use the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program to incentivize local governments to implement land use reforms that enable mixed-use and infill development.
• Poor housing location and quality create health risks, particularly for vulnerable populations whose lungs are exposed to outdoor pollution from highways and fossil fuel facilities or indoor emissions from heating and cooking.

APA

RMI (2021). We Have New Leadership and a New Year—We Need New Housing, Too. https://rmi.org/resources/we-have-new-leadership-and-a-new-year-we-need-new-housing-too/

Chicago

RMI. We Have New Leadership and a New Year—We Need New Housing, Too. 2021. https://rmi.org/resources/we-have-new-leadership-and-a-new-year-we-need-new-housing-too/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |author=RMI |title=We Have New Leadership and a New Year—We Need New Housing, Too |date=12 January 2021 |url=https://rmi.org/resources/we-have-new-leadership-and-a-new-year-we-need-new-housing-too/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{rmi2021have, author = {{RMI}}, title = {{We Have New Leadership and a New Year—We Need New Housing, Too}}, publisher = {RMI}, year = {2021}, month = jan, url = {https://rmi.org/resources/we-have-new-leadership-and-a-new-year-we-need-new-housing-too/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }