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3 weeks ago | 
mercatus.org | Emily Hamilton
Re: Hearing on March 4, 2025, entitled “Building Our Future: Increasing Housing Supply in America” Dear Chairman Hill: After my testimony before the Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance on March 4, 2025, you requested answers to one question submitted by Congresswoman Garcia and two questions submitted by Ranking Member Waters. The questions and answers are below.
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1 month ago | 
mercatus.org | Emily Hamilton
Thank you, Chair Flood, Ranking Member Cleaver, and members of the subcommittee. I am Emily Hamilton, a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, where I am codirector of the Urbanity Project. Housing affordability is a serious and growing problem for too many Americans. While the share of households that are renters has remained relatively steady for several decades, the share of income that the median renter spends on rent has increased by 25 percent since 1980.
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Dec 21, 2024 | 
cato.org | Emily Hamilton
Building codes in the United States are largely based on model codes developed by a nonprofit organization called the International Code Council (ICC), and its code development process fails to elevate technical analysis.
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Dec 11, 2024 | 
governing.com | Jared Brey |Emily Hamilton |Jabari Simama |Zina Hutton
Federal prosecutors say the practice amounts to “an unlawful information-sharing scheme,” and some policymakers throughout California are moving to curb it. San Diego’s city council president is the latest to do so, proposing to prevent local apartment owners from using the pricing software, which he maintains is driving up housing costs.
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Dec 3, 2024 | 
governing.com | Emily Hamilton |Girard Miller |Jared Brey |Alan Greenblatt
From Boise, Idaho, to Bentonville, Ark., serious housing affordability challenges are affecting more and more U.S. cities. The root cause is clear: Local land-use regulations and byzantine approval processes for new housing construction are constraining housing supply, leaving too few homes to go around at a decent price. The solution is to roll back rules that are standing in the way of more housing, as well as those preventing less expensive types of homes from being built.
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Oct 17, 2024 | 
governing.com | Emily Hamilton |Alan Ehrenhalt |Erin Norman |Scott Beyer
But tucked above the garage is a two-bedroom apartment, where his daughter and granddaughter live. It’s the first accessory dwelling unit to be built since the town of Newmarket, N.H., eased its housing rules last year. The idea isn’t new: For generations, some homes included extra units, sometimes called granny flats or in-law suites.
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Aug 14, 2024 | 
mercatus.org | Emily Hamilton
ADUs as One Piece of the Solution to the Housing Affordability ProblemOver the past decade, the problem of insufficient housing construction has become increasingly apparent. More households are being forced either to make tough tradeoffs in order to afford housing in their preferred location or to move somewhere less expensive.1 The COVID pandemic exacerbated the problem of insufficient housing supply and the difficulty of building new housing where it is needed.
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Aug 13, 2024 | 
governing.com | Girard Miller |Zina Hutton |Emily Hamilton |J.B. Wogan
The legislation has been the focus of intense political debate all year, with Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders responding to the pressure created by a tough-on-crime ballot measure that would stiffen penalties for retail theft. Democratic leaders were hopeful their bills could sway prosecutors to drop the measure, but negotiations collapsed, leaving California with two different visions for addressing crime.
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Aug 13, 2024 | 
governing.com | Girard Miller |Zina Hutton |Emily Hamilton |J.B. Wogan
In a challenge of a proposed constitutional amendment that was placed on the November general election ballot by lawmakers in May, Cole County Circuit Judge Cotton Walker ruled that the official written description of the issue facing voters is “fair and sufficient.” “(T)he court concludes that the summary statement is not untrue or prejudicial, and it does not use language that is intentionally argumentative or likely to create prejudice for the measure ...,” Walker wrote in his 11-page...
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Aug 12, 2024 | 
governing.com | Emily Hamilton |Jared Brey |Girard Miller |Zina Hutton
I believe zoning reform needs to include allowing more housing in existing single-family neighborhoods. However, reforms that only change the number of units allowed on existing lots — rather than employing additional changes like reducing minimum lot size requirements, reducing setback requirements and increasing allowable height — are drawing backlash from residents without proportionate improvements to housing supply and affordability.
