Great piece. Very compelling and so sad.

And this GAO report offers a quantitative estimate of the relationship between rents and homelessness: www.gao.gov/products/gao...

We didn’t attempt to quantify but the directional relationship between supply and demand-> rent -> homelessness is clear: www.pew.org/en/research-...

Thanks! The fire-fatality disparities were wild. Fire-death rate 18x higher in pre-1970 single family than post-2010 apartment. But only new apartments (and occasionally townhouses) are getting stopped by fire-safety concerns.

And one more... regional housing supply drives local rents 4x more powerfully than supply within localities on average, so state laws to allow more homes are absolutely necessary to improve housing affordability, even when some localities act.

And the converse is also true. Rents have been falling fastest for older, naturally affordable (Class C) apartments in metro areas that have added the most housing.

The bills are:
Apartments in all commercial areas in cities
Small-lot starter homes in cities
Office to residential conversions in cities
Strong limits on protest petitions
Single-stair
Expanding where factory-built housing can be used
Curbing college-town limits on roommates

Quite the session. Well done.

www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-...

Thanks for highlighting this research from @stephenjacobsmith.com and Pew. Lots of reason to think we could improve fire safety by legalizing single-stair because it would bring more of the safest housing type online: sprinklered, modern, multi-family, with self-closing doors & fire-rated walls.