The Next Big Pro-Housing Bill Could Have Substack Origins

Boyd's essay contest window is closing soon.

If you recall from our mid-September post, the Boyd Institute is holding an essay contest through the end of October. We’re looking for essays that answer the following question: What’s an actionable, outside-the-box solution to America’s housing crisis?

You still have time to submit something!

👉 Submit Your Essay👈

Submitting an essay on housing is not only a way to insert your arguments into the broader zeitgeist, it is a way to:

• Make money — the grand prize is $2,500, 2nd and 3rd place each get $1,000, and we may even offer a $300 honorarium to authors whose essays we choose to publish beyond the top three.

• Network — the winner will receive an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C. for a face-to-face with the Boyd team.

• Get recognized — your essay will be published and promoted on our Substack, and you will receive the honorary title of Boyd Fellow for one year.

But we also wanted to briefly touch on the type of essay we are looking for.

Boyd is a truth-seeking entity, unencumbered by dogma or milieuistic pressures. Too often is it the case that actual policy plays second-fiddle to the middle school lunch table dynamics in state legislatures or on Capitol Hill. It is in this vein that we are focused more on what is the right policy approach, however bold or out-of-consensus.

It is our underlying and fundamental view that politics should not pre-empt policy; coalitions can be (and have been) built around well-crafted policy. In fact this seems, to us, to be one of the better ways to ultimately overcome partisanship (see: the success of the YIMBY movement and Abundance agenda). Lest we forget that SB 79 and the raft of pro-development legislation recently passed in Californa had (“micro”) blogger origins:

In short, good policy begets good politics.

Now, even if you reject the premise of there being a housing crisis — that’s fair; many people take exception to the broad characterization of the US housing market as being in a crisis — you should still submit an essay!

Perhaps you believe that the isolated pockets of housing unaffordability can be solved by market forces alone, and your against-the-grain proposal is for policymakers to KHFOOTY, and simply let waning demand run its course (even if that portends a negative wealth effect). Perhaps, to the contrary, you believe policymakers aren’t doing enough to boost the supply or affordability of housing. Either way, we want you (or someone you know) to send us your arguments in the form of an essay.

This is a chance to speak truth into the world. Take it!

For the full slate of details, please see our initial call for submissions here:

If you have questions, please contact us at either [email protected] or [email protected]. Or, alternatively, DM the Boyd Substack account!

We look forward to reading your bold, asymmetric ideas.