Lafayette Square Institute’s Thought Leadership Summit

The United States faces a significant housing shortage that contributes to the financial insecurity of millions. Rather than a source of financial insecurity, how can we transform our housing system into a foundation for economic empowerment and opportunity?

In May of 2024, the Lafayette Square Institute brought together a select group of housing leaders – operators, investors, funders and policy thinkers – to discuss that question and to explore how we can use innovative financing strategies and public policies to scale socially impactful models.

5 takeaways from the discussion:

1. The housing system in the US inadequately serves Americans across the income spectrum and contributes to wealth inequality. The median homeowner has 40 times the household wealth of a renter—nearly $255,000 for homeowners compared to $6,720 for renters.

2. Policies must balance a desire for affordability and social impact with proper incentives for investors, operators, and developers. Otherwise they risk exacerbating our housing deficit.

3. Innovators in the field are proving that impactful local housing models can close the wealth gap and create long-term economic opportunity for residents. But, significant support is needed to scale these approaches nationally.

4. Federal housing policy needs new and creative approaches, including flexible policy vehicles to direct investment capital towards the construction of safe, affordable, sustainable homes.

5. Through a unified coalition of the public and private sectors, we can solve this problem. Billions of dollars in capital can be unlocked by developing policies focused on creating measurable social impact while properly incentivizing private investment.

Informed by discussions like these, Lafayette Square Institute is developing housing policies focused on encouraging investment in operators and strategies that can create prosperity and opportunity: affordable rental housing, homeownership programs, and models that create equity and wealth-building opportunities for residents and communities.

What are the development and housing models that you are most excited about that, if scaled, could help solve the housing crisis? What policies have you seen that have effectively attracted private investment capital to affordable housing projects? Who else should we be talking with?