Panel: Red Tape Ties Up Low-Cost Housing

Needless regulations and community opposition to low-cost housing has pushed home prices out of reach for many Americans, a federal commission said Monday.

It said local opposition was raising the cost of building homes in established neighborhoods by up to 30%.

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Jack Kemp, who presented the report to President Bush, said the White House would suggest legislation to implement the report’s recommendations this year.

“All too often regulations, zoning, red tape, building fees, building codes, rent controls are impeding the type of housing opportunities that low- and moderate-income people desperately are in need of,” Kemp said.

He said many of those being denied housing were black. Laws to remedy the problem could be the next chapter in civil rights, he said.

“Good education, a job and a chance to own a piece of the American dream is as much a part of civil and human rights as anything that has been talked about for a number of years,” Kemp said.

The report, by a bipartisan group of liberals and conservatives, urged strong efforts at all levels of government to end regulatory barriers.

Kemp said the report decried “redlining,” an illegal banking practice that denies home loans to blacks and other minorities.

Some barriers, such as environmental impact studies and zoning, were not meant to stop moderately priced housing, he said. But home prices were still higher because the measures restricted land use and delayed construction.

Kemp noted that a recent Census Bureau study showed that only 9% of renters in the United States could afford a median-priced house.

The report recommended tying federal housing grants to the removal of the barriers.