From Jobs to Housing: Let’s Reframe the Conversation

By Bill Mears

For decades, economic development was synonymous with job creation. Cities built entire incentive packages around attracting employers — land deals, TIFs, tax breaks — with the idea that jobs would lead to growth.

But that script is outdated.

Today, companies aren’t struggling to find sites — they’re struggling to find workers. And workers? They can’t move where they can’t live.

The issue holding back economic growth isn’t a lack of demand or even lack of capital. It’s a lack of housing. And not just “affordable” housing. All housing.

We’ve framed the conversation too narrowly. The term “affordable housing” carries political baggage and often focuses only on subsidies and income brackets. What we really need is new housing at all levels. Build more A-class units, and B and C housing opens up. Families move up, workers move in, and the market gets moving again.

So what’s stopping us?

In many places, it’s not the private market — it’s the local friction. Zoning. Lengthy approvals. Utility capacity. Lack of infrastructure.

If municipalities want housing, they have to act like it.

That means:

• Streamlining entitlements: predictable timelines and fewer hoops.
• Zoning with intent: allow more density and a wider mix of housing types.
• Investing in infrastructure: roads, sewer, water — the backbone of development.
• Creating development-ready sites: because land isn’t “shovel-ready” just because it’s empty.
• Helping share predevelopment risk: especially in markets where rents don’t yet justify construction costs.

Incentives aren’t just for employers anymore. If housing is the new economic development, cities need to align their resources accordingly.

More rooftops = more workforce = more investment.

It’s time we stopped wringing our hands about “affordable housing” and started putting housing, period, at the center of the growth strategy.