Maine’s Inclusionary Zoning: A Tinker-Toy Solution For A Brutal Affordable Housing Crisis

active construction site with equipment, workers and materials
Expecting inclusionary zoning and new development to solve the affordable housing crisis is folly.

A useful article out of Portland, Maine does a fine job of explaining why the bloom is off the rose when it comes to that darling of equality advocates everywhere: inclusionary zoning.

Inclusionary zoning creates the illusion of equality of opportunity for all classes and races in a neighborhood. Unfortunately, since its introduction fifty years ago, inclusionary zoning has been harnessed to, and dragged along by, a single funding source — the housing industry itself.

From a government perspective, a neighbourhood with inclusionary zoning is a free ride for taxpayers. Once the zoning is there, no further draws on the public purse are needed. But assigning the task of providing housing for all to the development industry results in a tiny fraction of the new housing being affordable for citizens with low incomes.

The class and race integration of inclusionary zoning becomes more symbolic than real, as citizens with low incomes become involuntary gamblers in social lotteries for handfuls of houses.

Why does this matter everywhere?

The successes and failures of inclusionary zoning in Maine have been repeated countrywide and even internationally. Read more on its limitations, including useful links to studies that expose both the unfairness and impracticality of placing the burden of affordable housing on a single industry, in the Portland Press Herald: Maine Voices: Inclusionary zoning no silver bullet for Portland’s affordable-housing crisis

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