‘It is a crisis’: Mayors share how housing has shaped their jobs

Robbie Sequeira

(States Newsroom) In U.S. cities big and small, mayors are finding their tenures shaped by housing shortages, and efforts to build more homes, so that people of any income can afford a place to live.

In a series of conversations, mayors of big cities such as Atlanta and Seattle, as well as of midsize Midwest cities like Columbus, Ohio, and Madison, Wisconsin, told Stateline that housing is the No. 1 priority for mayors to tackle.

“Housing is by far one of the most important issues facing every mayor in America. It impacts everything from safety to the workforce to transit,” said Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther, who also is the immediate past president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. “Mayors are on the front lines of our nation’s housing crisis. And it is a crisis.”

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