Neighborhood-scale homes for the most walkable places.

In order to meet climate goals, we must dramatically reduce the number of car trips by the end of the decade. Fewer car trips mean fewer emissions, less pollution from tires and brakes, and less traffic. In order to achieve that on a short timeline, we must increase the number of people who are able to live in neighborhoods that are already walkable and near transit.

And houses in walkable, urban places are naturally smaller, and building smaller houses requires much less carbon than building larger houses.

Exclusionary laws from the mid-1900s made it legal to build only single-family, car-dependent houses on large lots. We ran out of such houses decades ago, with scarcity sending costs soaring and leaving a rapidly growing population without places to live near jobs and opportunities.

Recent state and local reforms have made it possible to once again build the kind of small-scale attainable housing that we did 100 years ago, that forms the foundation of our neighborhoods. Now we have a chance to build 1-4 unit starter homes that reinforce the character of our great neighborhoods.

Our cities are struggling to stay afloat and support critical services. Local businesses are struggling to stay open. If we can gently welcome new neighbors, we can address both. New, compact housing in urban cores creates significant new tax revenue for cities, in locations where all services like utilities, parks, and schools are already available. And more neighbors means more customers and more eyes on the street for neighborhood businesses.