Good Affordable Housing, Bad Affordable Housing
When you’re done with the article, send a letter to city council reminding them we need good affordable housing.
Will Newton be a place our kids can afford to live—or a museum of homes only the wealthy can buy? We face two paths to lower housing costs, and the one we choose will define our city for generations.
The first path is growth-driven affordability. This isn't a fantasy; it works. Consider Auckland, New Zealand, which in 2016 upzoned three-quarters of its residential land, unleashing a record surge in housing construction and resulting in rent increases that were far below those of neighboring cities. Or Portland, Oregon, which legalized “middle housing” and created thousands of new, more affordable homes.
The most compelling example comes from New Rochelle, New York, a city demographically similar to Newton. Facing its housing crisis, New Rochelle didn’t just tweak its rules; it created a downtown master plan and approved thousands of apartments at once. It streamlined environmental reviews, offered incentives, and guaranteed a 90-day approval process for projects that met the criteria. The result? A 37% increase in its apartment stock over the last decade. While rents in the surrounding NYC metro area jumped 25%, in New Rochelle they rose just 1.6%.
The second path is shrinking-city affordability. This is the affordability of a city in retreat. Minneapolis offers a crucial lesson in how well-intentioned policy can go wrong. In 2020, the city enacted its ambitious 2040 Plan to eliminate single-family-only zoning, which, on paper, should have spurred a construction boom.
But it didn't. A lawsuit halted the plan, creating a climate of uncertainty that deterred investment. While housing costs did fall, a detailed study found it was due to a "softening of housing demand." The promise of future supply made buyers hesitate, but the unpredictable approval process meant the supply never materialized. Achieving affordability because your city is seen as a risky place to build isn't a victory; it's a warning sign. Watching young families pack up for cheaper towns should break our hearts—and spur us to act.
Here in Newton, we can’t afford to achieve affordability through stagnation. The choice for a vibrant future requires commitment. But we cannot fool ourselves into thinking that recent zoning changes like the MBTA Communities Act or new rules for ADUs are sufficient. They are important first steps, but they will fail to produce the housing we need if the process for approving that housing remains broken.
Ensuring Newton provides a true diversity of housing means radical reform of our approval process. It must become predictable. Without it, the only projects that can survive the gauntlet of delays and uncertainty are those with the highest profit margins: oversized, over-priced, cookie-cutter houses. The "missing middle" housing that families and seniors need will remain unbuilt. This is how we lose our historically diverse housing stock, one teardown at a time.
It's time to tell our City Councilors that we need more than just new rules; we need a new system. A system that is fast, fair, and predictable, so we can finally build the affordable, diverse Newton our community deserves.
Send a letter to city council with your thoughts.
Additional reading
New Rochelle Success Story: Puzycki, R. (2025). Supply, Demand, and Housing Affordability. Details how New Rochelle controlled rent growth through a combination of zoning reform, procedural streamlining, and incentives.
Minneapolis 2040 Plan Study: Gu, H. & Munro, D. (2025). Zoning Reforms and Housing Affordability: Evidence from the Minneapolis 2040 Plan. This is the core paper detailing how the plan lowered housing costs via demand softening rather than a supply increase due to a lawsuit halting implementation.
Auckland and Supply-Side Success: NYU Furman Center. (2024). Supply Skepticism Revisited. A good summary of the evidence from Auckland and other locations showing that increasing supply moderates prices.
Portland's Residential Infill Project: Strong Towns. (2025). Portland's Quiet Housing Revolution is Starting to Pay Off. Details the success of legalizing "middle housing" to create more affordable units.
Procedural Reform (UCLA Study): UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies. (2023). WP 2023-10: What’s the Matter with Building Housing in Los Angeles? The landmark study showing that reducing approval times significantly increases housing production.
General Pro-Housing Policy (Auchincloss Article): Auchincloss, J. & Gruber, J. (2025). The Case for New Cities. The States Forum. Provides the broader economic context for building more housing near productive urban centers.
