How to fix a housing shortage

Planet Money

NPR

Business, News

4.6 • 29.8K Ratings

🗓️ 30 August 2024

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When Cody Fischer decided to get into real estate development, he had a vision. He wanted to build affordable, energy efficient apartments in Minneapolis, not far from where he grew up.

His vision was well-timed because, in 2019, Minneapolis's city council passed one of the most ambitious housing plans in the nation. One aim of that plan was to alleviate the city's housing shortage by encouraging developers like Cody to build, build, build.

But when Cody tried to build, he ran into problems. The kinds of problems that arise all over the country when cities confront a short supply of housing, and try to build their way out.

Today on the show, NIMBYism, YIMBYism and why it's so hard to fix the housing shortage. Told through the story of two apartment buildings in Minneapolis.

This episode was hosted by Amanda Aronczyk and Kenny Malone. It was produced by Emma Peaslee and Sofia Shchukina, and edited by Molly Messick. It was engineered by James Willets and fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Truth, independence, fairness, transparency, respect, excellence.
0:07.0	This is Planet Money from NPR.
0:17.0	Real estate developer Cody Fisher and I are standing facing a big old house.
0:27.0	We're at the intersection of Minnehaha Avenue in 36th Street in South Minneapolis.
0:35.0	The house has got brown stucco and yellow siding.
0:37.9	To me, it looks, I don't know, like a big house with yellow siding on a corner lot.
0:43.4	To Cody, this looks like a great place to build.
0:47.8	Minnehaha is a busier street with dedicated bike lanes, high frequency transit.
0:54.0	When you say high frequency transit,
0:56.0	I picture something amazing, but you're just talking about buses, right?
1:00.0	Yes, yeah, I am, That's the advocate in me.
1:03.0	Yeah, Cody seems to be one of those relentlessly optimistic types.
1:08.0	Their buses, amazing.
1:10.0	He used to work at non-profits on issues like food security and hunger.
1:13.6	Cody also worked for Chicago Public Schools.
1:16.1	He got an MBA.
1:17.1	And now, Cody is, optimistically of course, trying to fix one of the country's toughest policy problems.
1:24.2	Housing.
1:25.2	Housing.
1:26.2	As you're probably aware, we're living through a massive housing shortage, and that's driving
1:29.9	up home prices all over the country.
1:32.1	If you want to solve a housing shortage, advocates and
	...

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