My takeaway here is that new housing is just way safer than older housing for so many reasons. If your number one concern in housing policy is fire safety, you should be way more concerned about getting people out of old housing than about making marginal fire safety improvements to future housing.

gr8 research by @pewtrusts.org (@alexhrwtz.bsky.social + Seva Rodnyansky), Bethel Cole-Smith + Daniel Muhammad, @evan-mast.bsky.social, Limin Fang + Emi Kim + @justintyndall.bsky.social Building housing ⬇️housing costs 4 people across the income spectrum (ty @tinysnekcomics.bsky.social 4 the comic)

Update: This bill directing HUD to develop a model single-stair code was amended in House Financial Services committee yesterday to allow six stories instead of five, and it passed committee as part of the Housing for the 21st Century Act!

Condos are an affordable homeownership option, but they're rarely built in CA. A major reason is the construction defect liability, which creates excessive legal threats disincentivizing construction. @muhammadspeaks.bsky.social from @cayimby.bsky.social explains www.lewis.ucla.edu/2025/12/17/1...

Consultants contracted by Minnesota found that an eight-story single-stair building with 6,000 sq. ft. per floor (building 4) has dramatically lower fire risk than a same-height code-compliant two-stair building with a larger floor plate (building 1) www.dli.mn.gov/sites/defaul...

Today I spoke at VOICE’s Homes for All Assembly about the urgency of our housing shortage. We must build homes for all incomes, ensure every level of government plays its part, and use our power to unlock housing and protect stability for everyone in Alexandria.

I can't stop thinking about this. We're pursuing zero fire risk in multifam, while tolerating much more in single-fam. People respond by building and living in single-fam, where they're exposed to not only one of the highest fire death risks in the developed world, but also TONS more car crash risk

Love this new report on buildings' relative fire safety from @alexhrwtz.bsky.social and Pew colleagues. www.pew.org/en/research-...

Pew finds something that everybody in codes and standards knows but few will say out loud: we apply far stricter fire safety standards to apartments than to houses. www.pew.org/en/research-...

In part 2 of our series on misaligned incentives in housing policy, the UCLA Housing Voice Podcast speaks with @stephenjacobsmith.com about the high cost of elevators in North America, and the negative consequences for affordability and accessibility. www.lewis.ucla.edu/2025/09/24/9...

Well said. And this research shows why reforms like Colorado's are crucial. Regional housing supply drives local rents 4x more than supply within a municipality, so statewide reforms are necessary--there's just no way to get to widespread affordability solely through local action.

Turns out there's no tradeoff between housing abundance and affordability for low-income renters- the opposite in fact. Rents have risen 10 pts more during the shortage in low-income neighborhoods than high-incomes ones. www.pew.org/en/research-...

Texas has raised the bar, putting up probably the single most impactful legislative session for housing this year with 7 bipartisan bills. Pew's statement outlining them here: www.pew.org/en/about/new...

THREAD: A Win for Housing in Texas! SB 2835 — Single-Stairway Bill — is headed to the governor’s desk! Working with Rep. @jamestalarico.bsky.social, we passed SB 2835 to clear out outdated codes and unlock more housing opportunities for small-scale, multi-family developments across Texas. (1/5)

Big win for Texans looking for housing. Single-stair reform #SB2835 is a major step forward for legalizing modern apartments that can fit on small lots and above stores.

Policy changes often take years to show results. And then there is congestion pricing in New York. Here are all of the ways we could find it having an immediate effect: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

It's easy to lose sight of the big picture, but Rachel provides thorough context on the 2-stair mandate: "Since fires are more common in single-family homes than in new apartments, they say current rules may actually steer people toward less safe housing."

Good one. So many single-stair bills moving in state legislatures right now.

New Pew brief: Pennsylvania's housing shortage has pushed up costs. Highlights: 1) 60% drop in inventory helped push up prices 55% 2) PA ranks 44th of 50 states in housing permits granted 3) Counties that have issued few permits have seen rents soar www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-...

More single-stair momentum…

This is one of the most-discussed housing reforms in state legislatures right now, and here is empirical proof that it’s safe, definitively refuting the only argument being made against single-stair building code reform.

A profile of my organization in Slate, by @henrygrabar.bsky.social: slate.com/business/202...

Great illustration of how the debate over whether to allow enough homes for everyone is moving from the local level to the state level. And when it does, even traditionally exclusive towns like Lexington, MA sometimes re-think things and welcome new neighbors.

New solar plants expected to support most U.S. electric generation growth www.eia.gov/todayinenerg...

Great morning at #MayorsDC25. Lots of pro-housing mayors there who have led the way: Single-stair in Knoxville, easing apartment construction near commerce in Columbus & Cincinnati, adaptive reuse in Denver, shrinking lot size in Austin, bonus ADUs and TOD in San Diego.

Love this new video on how the housing shortage drives up costs & homelessness from @justineunderhill.bsky.social. Video's a great format for explaining housing generally, but this one is a dazzler: www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQW4...

A new YIMBY Action report finds that of 232 state legislators who sponsored pro-housing bill and then ran for reelection, 95% of them won: yimbyaction.org/blog/pro-hou...

Yes indeed! And homelessness fell relative to the rest of the state and displacement fell relative to other cities: www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-...

New Q&A with former mayor of New Rochelle, NY on zoning reforms that added thousands of apartments: www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-...

Small-scale progress (in a literal and figurative sense) coming thanks to St. Paul's zoning reforms: 3 vacant lots are about to turn into 5 homes. Thanks to new zoning laws, old lots are allowed to be cut into smaller pieces. That's exactly what will happen here!

Paradoxically, Minneapolis’ fairly low rents have some negative second-order impacts on the effectiveness of certain affordable housing policies (see thread below). But first and foremost, it’s simply a really good fact that market rentals are easy to find at 60% AMI!

My NYT debut: removing outdated building code requirements, including that windows have to open, is the key to converting vacant office buildings to housing. A few cities have done that, & office to co-living can be viable there at rents half the current median. www.nytimes.com/2024/11/06/o...

What happens when you promise child care for every kid? I sought to understand how Germany's first decade with this universal policy is actually going, and what lessons Americans can learn www.vox.com/policy/37930...

In our Pew/Gensler report on office to co-living, we found this model can use the same amount of subsidy to produce 13x the number of deeply affordable homes as conventional studio apartments. $300k in subsidy for a studio, $23k in subsidy for an adaptive reuse micro-unit.

It passed the Means of Egress Committee, 13-1! Still more comments and votes (or just one vote?), but that was probably the toughest one.

New research from Pew & Gensler out today on a much more efficient model for office-to-residential: co-living. Ring the perimeter with micro-units, everything else goes in the middle. Sharply cuts costs (both per unit & square foot) & makes layouts efficient: www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-...

Two steps toward housing affordability! - Sen. Tim Scott’s ROAD to Housing bill removes steel chassis mandate, cutting $5K-$10K in costs - HUD’s new rules raise the cap on manufactured homes from 3 to 4 units Details from @aarmlovi.bsky.social + @awjustus.bsky.social: