Biden’s $2.3 trillion infrastructure bill focuses on addressing aging infrastructure across the country, but the massive bill also covers significant other spending, including funding for “diverse” communities, the U.S. media outlet Breitbart News reported Sunday. In Biden’s plan, “diverse” communities are achieved through changes in zoning laws.
For decades, exclusionary zoning requirements, such as minimum lot sizes, mandatory parking requirements, and prohibitions on multi-family construction, have driven up housing and construction costs and excluded families from lots with greater opportunities,” the White House Fact Sheet reads. Biden calls on Congress to develop an innovative, competitive grant program that provides flexible and attractive funding to jurisdictions that take steps to remove such unnecessary barriers to producing affordable housing.”
Reuters sees this as a shift from free market to government control. Biden is seeking to alleviate the national shortage of affordable housing by pushing local governments to allow apartment buildings in communities currently limited to single-family homes.
The White House says the housing effort is “an innovative approach to eliminating state and local exclusionary zoning laws.”
The Breitbart News reports that Biden’s plan even designates which workers would benefit from such a housing program, with the Fact Sheet saying, “Putting union construction trades workers to work upgrading homes and businesses and saving families money.”
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