Overregulation Is the Main Block to Affordable Housing

Granger MacDonald of the National Association of Home Builders (Letters, Sept. 22) responds to a Sept. 19 editorial that suggests “Kill the Loopholes, Including the One for ‘Low-Income Housing.’” His argument that zoning and regulatory reform itself cannot sufficiently reduce the costs required to provide feasible rents tears a hole in the laws of supply and demand. In what universe does the concept that if you build more of it, it will become cheaper, not apply? Only in the trough-filled regulatory morass of government agency. Building anything where people want to live has become a nightmare because of government.

Let the builders and would-be homeowners build. This thinking that “people are the problem” has led to a massive failure of our government to make our infrastructure work. In all my years in construction I’ve met a lot of builders slogging through the swamp for a permit, but not one looking for a subsidy.