Economic Liberty
Private Property
Zoning Justice Project

Housing Opportunities Made Easier (HOME) Act

Expanding Property Rights to Increase Home Building and Home Business Opportunities for All

America’s housing shortage has many causes, but burdensome zoning laws make it harder for property owners to build homes and harder for families to find them. Scholars, state legislators, and municipal officials from different backgrounds increasingly agree that expanding housing supply requires legalizing more homes in more places. When executed properly, these reforms also can increase home-based entrepreneurship. 

Many municipalities maintain and enforce zoning ordinances that make it difficult to build new homes or operate home-based businesses. These restrictions are often unrelated to legitimate health and safety concerns, serving instead to preserve the status quo or exclude new residents and economic activity. 

When communities limit housing supply, prices rise. Restrictive zoning reduces the number and variety of homes available for purchase or rent. This places the greatest strain on workers, young families, retirees, and others seeking access to thriving job markets and high-opportunity neighborhoods. 

Fortunately, reform is possible. In recent years, cities and states across the country have expanded property rights and economic freedom by making it easier to add homes, convert existing space, and use property productively. Statewide reform is not an improper intrusion into local affairs. Local governments exercise zoning authority because state law grants it, and state legislators have both the power and the responsibility to ensure that authority is not misused to stifle growth and entrepreneurship. 

What Can State Legislators Do? 

The Institute for Justice offers the HOME Act as a model for state legislators who want more housing. This model bill provides a menu of options, which can be selected as needed depending on the particular obstacles to housing in each state. 

The HOME Act: 

  • Streamlines permitting processes for home building; 
  • Prevents local governments from banning smaller, more affordable (sometimes known as “missing middle”) housing types; 
  • Permits the building of residential uses in commercial zones so that housing is closer to jobs; 
  • Broadly legalizes safe and nondisruptive home-based businesses; 
  • Requires any zoning law to have a real and substantial connection to public health and safety; and 
  • Expands how private property owners can safely and nondisruptively use their residential property. 

Webinar: Zoning Reform as a Solution to America’s Housing Crisis

Watch experts from the Institute for Justice and the Mercatus Center discuss zoning reform as a practical, market-driven solution to America’s housing crisis. This webinar recording explains how restrictive zoning laws fuel the housing crisis, introduces the HOME Act (IJ’s model zoning reform legislation), and highlights actionable steps for state legislators to increase housing supply and affordability.

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