While the United States faces a shocking shortage of millions of affordable-housing units for lower-income residents, a new white paper has been released that shows drawn-out approval and permitting processes are a major cause of housing construction delays. The finding underscores the serious need for a quicker timeline and less bureaucratic red tape for affordable-housing developers to receive approvals and permits.
The white paper, titled “Where Is Housing Slow to Build, And Is It Getting Slower?,” was written by researchers Evan Soltas and Audrey Wang from Princeton University and Leonardo D’Amico from the University of Chicago. They examined approval and permitting processes in dozens of U.S. cities between the years of 2000 and 2025.
Soltas, Wang, and D’Amico reported three key facts.
First, “the fastest cities complete projects in the time the slowest cities take to merely approve them.” For example, in one city, a developer receives approvals and permits for an apartment building and finishes construction of the project in, say, nine months while a developer in another city is still waiting for approvals after nine months.
Second, “across cities, permitting duration is positively associated with housing prices and negatively associated with production.” In other words, when permitting is delayed, construction costs for an apartment building increase as does the rent a tenant will be charged when the development is completed. Construction costs are lower when permitting is not delayed and more housing is built in a given city.
Third, “permitting duration has risen steadily over time, whereas total project duration has fluctuated cyclically.” The researchers found that the amount of time it takes for a developer to receive permits in the U.S. has doubled from 2000 to 2023. Doubled. But the total amount of time it takes to build an apartment building can fluctuate from one business cycle to the next.
In the end, the findings point to the need to streamline the approval and permitting process at cities and states across the nation so more housing can be built, especially affordable housing for moderate- and lower-income residents.
Or put another way, if a city more quickly delivers approvals and permits, that city will have more affordable housing in a more cost-efficient, timely way.
The white paper backs up findings by California’s Department of Housing and Community Development and the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG).
The state agency noted that “processing and permit procedures can post a considerable constraint to the production and improvement of housing. Common constraints include lengthy processing time, unclear permitting procedures, layered reviews, multiple discretionary review requirements, and costly conditions of approval. These constraints increase the final cost of housing, uncertainty in the development of the project, and overall financial risk assumed by the developer.”
A report by SCAG reported that “speeding up approvals and permit processing… can expedite the production of housing in a community, and can incentivize infill development and affordable housing.”
In California, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the parent organization of Housing Is A Human Right, introduced a bill this year that sets a timeline of 30 days for local governments to give permits for the construction of very-low-income and extremely-low-income units. It’s legislation that directly addresses the nation’s massive shortage of low-income housing – to a tune of 7.2 million units.
AHF’s bill is still going through the legislative process, and it can be replicated in other states.
The evidence only keeps building: politicians must speed up the approval and permitting process so more affordable housing can be built and moderate- and lower-income residents will avoid the prospect of homelessness.
Patrick Range McDonald is a veteran investigative reporter and the award-winning advocacy journalist for Housing Is A Human Right.