Housing Leadership Summit: an event recap

Editor’s note: the following event recap was written and submitted by SPAAR Member Meghan Howard

I had the privilege to attend the 2024 Housing Leadership Summit on September 10, a gathering of housing advocates from around the country, with several SPAAR members. The purpose of this Summit was discuss solutions to the housing crisis. In Minnesota, we are now more than 100,000 housing units short; this includes both homeowner and rental opportunities. This shortage grows year-after-year and is the primary factor contributing to skyrocketing housing costs. The state and nation’s housing shortage also contributes to the rising number of households paying more than 30 percent of their income on housing – many are paying as much or more than 50% of their income on housing.

Housing affordability is such an important issue because it impacts everyone. The value of home cannot be overstated. One of the Summit’s panelists put it well, “All roads lead back to home…”.

The Housing Leadership Summit focused on what steps to take to stop, or at least slow, the housing crisis. Housing is a bi-partisan issue not just in Minnesota, but nationwide. Attendees heard from housing advocates in Arizona and Colorado who shared some of the successes they’ve had expanding the supply of housing, but these advocates also talked about how they, and many housing advocates across the country, are still getting “stuck” when it comes to making the changes necessary to address housing needs.

The Summit’s panelists shared with attendees some of these ideas, including how to build homes more efficiently and effectively.

Paige Kahle, a SPAAR member and broker/agent of The Real Estate Collaborative, was intrigued to learn pre-approved building designs can further streamline the approval process, speed up the building process, and that single stair building for multi-level buildings up to eight stories can cut building costs by up to 13 percent relative to the former two-stair building codes. Eleven states have already adopted this new building plan. Manufactured homes were also discussed as a possible solution to the housing crisis, pictures were shared as examples and these homes are quite beautiful!

SPAAR member Kevin Harris, who is the Director of Lending at Mni Sota Fund, commented on his experience at the Summit, “I learned ways to activate and communicate effective, affordable housing topics to others. The data presented provided scale and depth on a local Twin Cities, State and National Level.”

One fact I learned from the Summit that surprised me was that, on average, home prices have increased more than 40 percent in the past four years.

One of the throughlines at the Summit was about what variables were making it more difficult to address the housing supply and availability issues. Panelists from Arizona shared that water scarcity and NIMBYism (Not In My Backyard) were having an impact on the homebuilding process. And panelists from Colorado highlighted the financing challenges of Accessory Dwelling Units.

SPAAR member Sarah Rostance shared one of her takeaways, “I had an ‘ah-ha’ moment on zoning and how far back those laws go, and how much it impacts housing today. Affordability and availability of housing specifically. I also want to know, when it comes to building multi-units, what comes first in the discussion - housing or transit?”

One of the themes of the Summit was how the lack of housing affordability and availability is affecting businesses. For businesses to grow and thrive, they need workers. And workers need to be able to afford to live in the communities where those businesses are located. If workers cannot afford to live near their jobs they cannot work in those jobs. If businesses cannot find workers to employ - we lose those great businesses. It becomes a vicious cycle. This predicament is happening here in Minnesota (we heard specifically about St. Cloud having this problem) and throughout the country.

The several SPAAR members who attended The Housing Affordability Summit are grateful to SPAAR for sending us to this event. It’s important for us as SPAAR member volunteers, Realtors®, and residents of our communities, to understand the housing crisis in our state, and around the country, and participate in these conversations about how to address it.

The only way to effectively advocate for change and combat the housing crisis locally and nationally is to be aware of what is happening and to speak up, show up and keep the conversation going. Everyone deserves a home and Realtors® are here to help make that happen.