Don't let HUD go back to making federal zoning policy

Housing policy may seem like a dull subject, but this century has proven it is anything but. Just consider for a moment the importance of housing in your personal life — where you choose to or must live and the costs it entails.

And then think of housing’s role in the life of the nation. For example, government intervention on the matter of homeownership led to economic catastrophe in the recent past. And today, a debate is raging in many communities about increasing housing costs. In places like California, the strictures of local zoning laws have created an artificial scarcity so acute as to drive away the middle class.