Boyd Housing Anthology
Highlighting eight more out-of-the-box housing solutions from our essay contest.
As the final installment of our inaugural essay contest at Boyd, we’re excited to present— in no particular order —eight essays selected for honorarium recognition.
Below, you’ll find a brief description of each essay, along with a link to the full PDF and the author’s Substack—please go subscribe.
Taken together, these submissions reflect a wide range of thinking, yet each remains practical and grounded in reality. We’re grateful to everyone who submitted, read, and shared their work with us this quarter, and we look forward to building on it in the year ahead.
Wishing you all a great 2026.
How Cities Can Solve Housing Affordability for Young People — Tenement Housing, SROs, and the legalization of ultra-dense development
Sol Hando
Young adults are being priced out of high-opportunity cities not only by raw underbuilding, but by the disappearance of small, cheap, tightly managed units that historically served them—most notably single-room occupancies (SROs) and modern micro-studios.
The author proposed legalizing and actively encouraging modern SROs and micro-units by: allowing much smaller minimum unit sizes; permitting higher internal density; piloting buildings with a share of micro-studios; creating tenant-management standards for SRO-style housing (shared kitchens/baths); and adjusting tenant-protection regimes (e.g., higher income-to-rent ratios instead of rigid eviction barriers) so small, safe units can be operated profitably and responsibly.
The NIMBY Tax: A Madisonian Approach
Annoying Peasant
Structural NIMBYism allows incumbent homeowners to hoard land-value gains while externalizing the costs of undersupply onto renters and newcomers. A targeted property-tax surtax can realign these incentives.
The author proposed a state-enabled NIMBY tax: a property-tax surcharge in jurisdictions whose housing production persistently lags population and job growth, and reductions where construction outpaces a target band. The formula automatically penalizes anti-growth locales and rewards those that permit abundance.
How Municipal Land Leasing Spurs Housing Production — Cutting Through the Gordian Knot of Local Land Use
Jeff Fong
Local governments often face fiscal incentives that bias them against housing (retail > apartments, NIMBY tax-base fears). Municipal land leasing can flip these incentives so cities actively want more housing.
The author proposed having cities retain ownership of strategic parcels (e.g., school sites, underused public land) and ground-lease them to private developers, capturing land appreciation and recurring lease payments. These revenues could then be channeled into public goods and fiscal stability so that new housing becomes a budgetary asset rather than a liability. This would serve to propagate best-practice models (e.g., Falls Church, VA) and standardize development authorities.
Universal Building Exemption — Unlocking housing supply with property tax reform judo
Lars Doucet
Current property-tax systems often penalize building and improvement while letting land speculation ride. A Universal Building Exemption (UBE) — exempting buildings from property tax and taxing land value only — would reward construction, punish speculation, and support families.
The author proposed replacing (or phasing out) existing homestead and building-focused exemptions with a universal exemption for improvements, keeping budgets whole by shifting the tax base to land value. This would require adjusting millage rates accordingly and framing UBE as both tax relief for young working families and a pro-growth, pro-natal policy.
The Three Point Turn — A three-step process for solving the housing crisis
J.K. Lundblad
The housing crisis is fundamentally an incentives problem: local zoning, misaligned property taxes, and redevelopment risk together lock in undersupply. A “three point turn” can reset those incentives.
The author proposed: (1) Centralizing and standardizing zoning at the state level, using Japanese-style inclusive zones that default to “yes”; (2) Implementing a politically palatable “backdoor” land value tax via state-mandated property-tax refunds tied to land value, nudging owners toward efficient use; and (3) Creating a Land Redevelopment Fund with large-scale government loan guarantees for converting underused parcels (parking, obsolete offices) into housing.
It’s time to build — Housing, and prisons
Kitten
Voters rationally associate density with crime, and will keep blocking upzoning until cities feel safe. Housing and crime must be addressed as a joint equilibrium, not separate debates.
The author proposed a federal Cities Are Safe and Affordable (CASA) Act that conditions generous housing funds on two state actions: (1) Tougher sentencing and expanded prison capacity for serious and repeat offenders and key quality-of-life crimes; and (2) Substantial upzoning and multi-family legalization in high-demand areas or proof of already-ample supply.
The Hidden Demand: Why the Housing Crisis is a Crisis of Care
Alex Boston
Much of the visible housing crisis — street homelessness, encampments, public disorder — reflects a care deficit for adults with serious mental illness and comparable impairments, not just a shortage of ordinary units.
The author proposed creating a new class of Certified Therapeutic Residential Facilities (CTRFs) funded via reformed Medicaid IMD rules so they count as healthcare, not forbidden institutions. CTRFs would then be scaled nationally and tightly linked to homeless-services pipelines.
Solving for the US Housing Affordability Crisis
Anton Frattaroli
The US mortgage-finance system and construction cost trends together drive a wedge between house prices and underlying costs; to restore affordability, we must rewire mortgage capital so each home purchase helps pay for new construction.
The author proposed adjusting mortgage pricing (e.g., small interest-rate premiums or one-time origination charges) and channeling the proceeds into a dedicated new-build fund that subsidizes or directly finances construction. Additionally, MBS structures would be tweaked so that global demand for safe housing debt is harnessed to expand supply rather than just bid up existing homes.
Reading through these, I've realized how tough the competition really is! So many sound assessments, pointed critiques, and inventive ideas. I'll have to up my game if there's another one of these next sprint.
Thanks for posting these!
All the download buttons work except for Kitten's article, which yields:
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