Housing Supply Accelerator Convenes to Drive America’s Housing Comeback Forward

Planners, homebuilders, realtors, and city leaders gathered in Detroit on Friday, April 24, for America's Housing Comeback Convening on Land Use, Regulations, and Development to share what's driving housing and zoning reform efforts forward across the U.S.

The convening, hosted by the American Planning Association in the lead-up to its National Planning Conference (NPC26), was part of a partnership with the National League of Cities for the Housing Supply Accelerator. It also featured participants from the National Association of REALTORS and the National Association of Home Builders, among others.

"We're seeing action at every single level of government," said Jason Jordan, APA's principal, public affairs, adding the U.S. is going through a remarkable period of change, with housing driving much of the political energy. "We talk to communities every day who are working on their own performance and innovation. We [are seeing] a historic number of pieces of state legislation on this topic, and even in Washington. This has become not only a federal issue, but one of the few — maybe the only — issues that still has the power to pull people together across the political divide."

Issues of housing affordability and supply continue to challenge planners, elected officials, and the private sector across the U.S. and the world. Sue Schwartz, FAICP, president of APA, shared this global perspective by talking about her recent trip to Ireland. "What's their number one issue? Housing," she said. "What's their second barrier? It's not having enough city planners."

That sentiment was echoed when she traveled to New Zealand. "Their young people can't afford to stay," Schwartz said. "They're moving ... they lost 5 percent of their population in the last five years, because they don't have places for people to live."

Schwartz said that planners need to work on the public perception of housing and how to get acceptance for projects aimed at making it more affordable and increasing supply. "We are the problem-solvers," she said. "We are the ones that come together, because it's not just zoning, it's not just having money, and it's not just being able to market well. All these things have to come together and support each other well to tackle this in a sustainable way."

Housing Driving Politics

Mark Shepherd also has seen these issues pop up at the local level in Clearfield, Utah, where he serves as mayor. When he started bringing housing density into conversations at the city council level, it was viewed as a swear word by many in the community, "because it means something they don't want." Many of the conversations he would have would be with residents not wanting "those people" in town. But he countered by showing how a college graduate with a first job paying around $80,000 would not be able to afford a starter home in Utah right now, as townhomes are selling for $450,000.

"And you have no choice but to stretch every bit of income you have into rent," Shepherd said. "That's not saying rent is a bad thing, but if that's the only option you have because you want to own a home at some point — but can't — that's a problem."

Shepherd believes these are issues the Housing Supply Accelerator group can fix. "It still continues to amaze me every time we get together that we're bringing this many people to a table from this many different industries to solve the problem," he said.

Jordan has also seen the housing conversation shift, as people now seek him out to talk about books they read on abundance or other ideas in the zeitgeist. "I think that's reflective of the scope of the challenge and the fact that this really touches people in a very personal way," Jordan said.

As the conversations move forward, one of the areas he believes needs to be focused on is that land use policy and local government systems need to evolve. Even if a city updates its zoning, Jordan said, there may be lingering building code issues. There may also be challenges with permit processes or finding the right financing for projects to pencil out.

"So, part of the fun of this process, I think, has been a willingness to try to recognize the complexity of the problem and to tackle its individual elements — recognizing that none of these alone is a full solve to the problem," he said.

Emily Liu (right), FAICP, director of planning and development in Dallas, shares how her city changed its building code to eliminate some of the challenges it posed to homebuilders.

 Changing the Systems in Different Ways

Over the course of the day, several speakers provided different ways they have approached issues with zoning, housing supply, municipal codes, and more. Each provided different solutions for solving problems unique to their own communities.

Keith Cooke, director of planning and community development markets at Esri, gave examples of how ArcGIS can be used to help play out development scenarios for planners. "If we were to build this, or if we were to allow this with the development parameters that we have in place, how many homes could we add?" he explained. "We're seeing GIS becoming an integral part of this so that planners and administrators and all the stakeholders can play out these new development scenarios to see what this might actually look like within their city."

He pointed to Riverside, California, which in 2022 had to meet a housing mandate set by the state's Department of Community Housing Development to add 16,000 units by 2029. "They used our technology to come up with multiple scenarios about where this housing could be," Cooke said. "In the end, they were able to actually assign 18,000 new housing units."

Cooke also brought up Mesa, Arizona, which wanted to add transit-oriented development (TOD) around 11 of the city's transit stops to create denser housing options and retain its younger population. The planners used Esri tools to inform the public about permitting statuses and to show different housing options to get further community buy-in.

Meanwhile, Don Elliott, FAICP, senior consultant at Clarion Associates, gave a crash course on the ways zoning reform can help fix problems — and how regulations can hinder communities, too. "We make our zoning, and then our zoning makes us," he said. "Zoning is not the only problem, and it may not be the biggest problem, but it is the one that we can solve. It doesn't require Washington. It doesn't require the state capital to do what we want them to do."

Elliott, whose new book An Even Better Way to Zone: Achieving More Affordable, Equitable, and Sustainable Communities was published in December 2025, said a lot of these challenges don't turn on the need to adopt something new, but rather the need to get rid of something already in place that has had unintended consequences. "How does the neighborhood you live in need to change to help solve this issue for all of us?" he asked. "And there is no they. It's all of us."

He also cautioned that if a city's codes and processes make it too hard for a builder to do the right thing, the project just won't happen. "When I talk to affordable housing builders, they often say, 'This is the most important thing you can do for me: If you could get me through a shorter process and a less politicized process, I will give you back the extra heights and the parking reductions and the things you've done in your code to get me to build things,'" Elliott said.

The idea of creating simpler and easier codes is something Emily Liu, FAICP, director of planning and development in Dallas, knows well. In April 2025, she helped lead a change to the residential building code that allows up to eight dwelling units to be constructed using residential-based codes. The old code called for any structure with more than two dwelling units to comply with the International Building Code (IBC), which added challenges and costs — like requiring fire sprinklers — that often discouraged smaller developments.

"Any two units more [than a single-family structure] and you would have this international code, and unfortunately, you'd have to be reviewed by the same standard as the Bank of America Tower building in Dallas," she said. "Changing this code and moving from the IBC, which is mostly commercial review, to the residential code [has made] a big difference."

Thank you @MayorBowser for joining us at our convening of America's Housing Comeback! We spent the day talking about the nationwide call for local housing solutions and how zoning reforms, innovative tools, and dedicated partnerships are creating more abundant housing.… pic.twitter.com/UkZHiyyLhz

— APA Advocates (@APAadvocates) April 24, 2026

A focus on increasing supply was also top of mind for Muriel Bowser, the mayor of the District of Columbia, who told the group that her city has been able to add 62,000 homes over the past 12 years. This has helped stem the tide of rising housing costs there.

"I continue to believe that tackling this housing crisis across America is one of the biggest jobs for public officials," Bowser said. "For the almost 12 years that I've been mayor, housing affordability has been a top issue."

Progress for Planners

The many different positive outcomes that were shared over the course of the convening left Jennifer Raitt, executive director of the Northern Middlesex Council of Governments and a member of the APA Board of Directors, feeling optimistic about the future. "The day highlighted some really meaningful reforms that are possible and [shown] that we are capable of big-picture system thinking, but also coalition-building and willingness to address deeper inequities," she said. "I think that's inspiring."

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Top image: A Housing Supply Accelerator convening took place in Detroit in late April, and attendees talked about finding solutions through land use, zoning, technology, and more to lead the charge for the U.S. housing comeback. Photos by Hugh Anderson Photography.