A Bipartisan Approach to Housing Availability and Affordability

What should be the interaction (if any) between state and local policies that impact housing availability and affordability?

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I think the epidemiology of the following antidote should spread across the country at every level in order for the level of cooperation and synergy that is needed for housing availability and affordability to happen. ‘Changes of attitude, changes of latitude’ are far more important than duplicative, conflicting, gap-present, time-out-of-synch delivery of all programs to the key target: the neighborhood. Quoted from The New York Times on Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2012:

Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey took an unscheduled break from partisan attacks on the President Obama on Tuesday to praise him, repeatedly and effusively, for leading the federal government’s response to the storm.

“Wonderful,” “excellent” and “outstanding” were among the adjectives Mr. Christie chose, a change-up from his remarks last week that Mr. Obama was “blindly walking around the White House looking for a clue.” Some of Mr. Christie’s Republican brethren have already begun grumbling about his gusher of praise at such a crucial time in the election. But the governor seemed unconcerned. When Fox News asked him about the possibility that Mitt Romney might take a disaster tour of New Jersey, Mr. Christie replied: “I have no idea, nor am I the least bit concerned or interested. I have a job to do in New Jersey that is much bigger than presidential politics. If you think right now I give a damn about presidential politics, then you don’t know me.” Kent Watkins is Chairman of the National Academy of Housing and Sustainable Development.

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