Up for Growth

Up for Growth is a national, cross-sector member network working to achieve a future where housing is always an opportunity, never an obstacle. Up for Growth Action advocates and lobbies for federal policies that support this future.

Our Why

From cities to suburbs to rural America, housing cost increases have significantly outpaced salary increases. For example, from 2006 – 2018, the share of middle-income renters who spend at or more than 30% of their income on rent increased by 37%. In the face of rising housing prices, individuals and families are forced to make impossible choices between fixed living costs and other necessities. Left with only bad options and an unclear path forward, the problem endures.

Out-of-control housing price inflation is the result of housing underproduction. Artificial policy barriers, exclusionary zoning, and opposition from residents (“NIMBYism”) limit the location and density of allowable housing while at the same time increasing the cost and time to deliver needed homes—in short, they stymie housing opportunities for everyday Americans. These unjust policies have an outsized negative impact on people of color. Racial discrimination in housing policy—and economic opportunity policy in general—widened the property ownership and wealth gap between white and non-white households. So, policies that depress housing production and increase cost, exacerbate this gap. In short, eliminating systemic barriers to housing production is a necessary step in dismantling systemic racism in the U.S.