Andrew Justus👷🏼‍♂️🏘🏙🏗

I just learned that a friend from my soccer team here in DC was arrested by ICE this week. Yousof Azizi, an Iranian student and media commentator here legally on an educational visa, is currently being held in Arizona awaiting deportation. Just horrible. change.org/p/release-yous…

Rising fleet sales are a leading sign of trouble for an automaker or brand. In the lead-up to the Great Recession, the Big Three US automakers were addicted to fleet sales to pump up volumes at the expense of resale values and customer satisfaction. autoweek.com/news/a2083321/…

This seems bad for housing production in the District, to have the Board of Zoning Adjustment out of action for so long. Projects delayed, and at least one potential developer is walking away. washingtoncitypaper.com/article/783870…

Single-room occupancy is a crucial form of housing for poor people we've largely made illegal. We need more SROs. Now. I've got a new piece out today on how we do that: office-to-SRO conversion. (link below) 1/2

Nearly 1M SRO (single room occupancy) units were wiped out by regulation since 1955. Now 900M sq ft of office space sits empty. Converting offices to SROs costs $123K–$239K/unit vs. $400K+ for a conventional studio, and charges half the median rent. Great new piece out by @GaryWinslett! therebuild.pub/p/rebuilding-t…

A cautionary tale for how property tax slopulism can go very wrong, and how states could channel public appetite for reform in a constructive direction.

The full commentary is available here: niskanencenter.org/the-bottom-run…

SROs are often the first rung on the housing ladder in any area. But they are too often missing from local housing markets. A model state bill, the ROOM Act, from @IJ and @LegeLawyer would give states a tool to overcome local restrictions.

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@DE_Gifford We can build 100-year roads, but only in the densest 1% of the state due to the high per mile cost.

Sounds expensive.

Honored to be a small part of this fantastic event, and grateful for Rep. @ScottPetersSD’s candid insights as a leading federal policymaker and former local elected official.

Yesterday, our @NiskanenCenter team, in partnership with the @ProbSolveCaucus, held our first Housing/Transportation event on Capitol Hill for Congressional staff. The event titled “Surface Transportation Reauthorization: Aligning Transportation Dollars and Housing Supply” served as our new team’s official launch! The two part event held a fireside chat with Congressman @RepScottPeters (D-CA-50)—lead sponsor of the Build More Housing Near Transit Act—and Niskanen’s housing policy analyst, @AWJustus. The second part included an expert panel of some of our most brilliant transportation and housing minds who discussed the need to focus federal policy on the intersection between transportation dollars, housing supply, and economic and social opportunity! Our experts included: @rohanaras, @aarmlovi, @willpoffwebster, @CorriganSalerno, @ShroyerAaron, Tara Roche, and Jarrett Stolzfus! A sincere thank you to Congressman Scott Peters, President of the Niskanen Center RJ Lyman, the Problem Solvers Caucus, all of our panelists, partners and guest! Thank you all!

An interstate power line can take over a decade to permit — because approval rests with individual states, sometimes individual counties. Dr. Liza Reed testified before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee today on what Congress can do: ⚡Establish a narrow and clear federal authority to build interregional transmission ⚡Remove market barriers to advanced technologies like HVDC ⚡Enable competition so private developers can build without state monopoly protections blocking them A grid that grows the economy, provides affordable energy, and keeps American industry competitive. That's what's on the table. Read the full testimony: lnkd.in/evNPD6ki

Since the ban specifically excludes triplexes … the funniest take is that Warren is actually just trying to promulgate the Boston Triple-decker as the dominant BTR form across the US Imagine if this is how every new suburban community looked!

This assumes that the probability of development of zoned capacity is 100%. That's unrealistic. Let's math it out: DC needs 120,000 units by 2050. Assume a high p(dev) of 5% every 5 years. DC would need to zone for 622,100 units—not 135,000. We're planning for a housing shortage.

After showing resilience in 2024, home building permits lost momentum over 2025 as elevated mortgage rates and ongoing #housingaffordability constraints weighed on buyer demand. Single-family home permits declined 7.4% in 2025. eyeonhousing.pulse.ly/knnoinpevx

Local governments could redistribute net proceeds from traffic cameras back to residents on a per capita basis, or make a big show of funding popular projects (park improvements, road repairs) with the proceeds to short circuit critical press but retain safety benefits.

Fun fact: the PA Supreme Court has ruled that municipalities have to treat manufactured homes exactly the same as site-built homes for planning and zoning purposes. Municipalities find a million ways to defy the law, and we should sharpen the actual state statute to prevent this

The legislation includes several provisions designed to reduce regulatory bottlenecks and realign federal incentives to encourage new housing construction. One example is the Build Now Act! ⬇️