The nation’s housing crisis needs more than AI to solve it, experts say
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The technology is just one of many levers to effecting change in the housing landscape for states and localities, experts say.
A lack of affordable housing in communities plagues nearly every state and locality across the U.S., and government leaders have increasingly been turning to technology like artificial intelligence to innovate the systems and processes blocking residents from accessing stable, cost-effective places to live.
The permitting process in particular has emerged as a “really popular and in-demand” use case where AI has been used to assist housing agencies with clearing case backlogs, expediting document reviews and revisions and demystifying complex policies and rules, Judah Axelrod, associate director of data science research methods at the Urban Institute, told Route Fifty.
But most jurisdictions and housing agencies grapple with vastly different resources, capacity and access to such tools, limiting their ability to make progress and learn best practices from each other when implementing AI, he explained.
“I think the jury’s out on whether AI [solutions] can do these things, but there is a lot of interest in seeing if they can,” Axelrod said, adding that cities “want to make these investments in experimenting and piloting [AI tools], but are not really yet at the point where they can say AI is the solution to the problem.”
That’s where a new federal funding opportunity from the Department of Housing and Urban Development comes into play. Under a new $3 million grant program, state, local and tribal governments can apply for a share of grant money to support the adoption of automated permitting and building code systems, including AI-enabled solutions. Applications are due July 13.
“The demonstration will generate empirical evidence on operational performance, costs, governance needs, and potential cost savings to inform broader adoption by state and local jurisdictions,” according to the Notice of Funding Opportunity released in May.
Broadly, the program aims to enable governments to “test the real-world deployment of an automated permitting platform within a government permitting environment to evaluate its effects on processing timelines, workflow efficiency, staff roles and applicant experience,” the NOFO reads.
Many U.S. jurisdictions have already adopted AI-enabled tools to address permitting backlogs and challenges. Denver, for instance, launched a platform in May that uses AI to help flag errors in applications and planning documents before they are officially submitted to help reduce downstream administrative burden.
A similar tool was recently adopted in Jacksonville, Florida, in a move that city officials hope will reduce approval times and boost housing development. Officials in Port Orchard, Washington, have also approved a one-year trial to use an AI-enabled platform that is designed to review permitting applications and cross-check them with existing building codes.
A national program like HUD’s can not only help reveal best practices across jurisdictions’ use of AI, but “I do think that there are some policy and potentially kind of workflow changes that can occur alongside like adoption of AI tech,” said Will Curran-Groome, research associate in the Housing and Communities Division at the Urban Institute.
For instance, AI can inspire housing and permitting reforms that go beyond technology. As leaders increasingly adopt the technology, they must also consider if their current housing-related policies, building codes, regulations and other requirements are AI-ready, he explained.
That could mean “simplifying” the language and how permitting rules are presented to clients because “making sure that there are pretty clear and objective standards in those policy documents could potentially enable some of the AI products to make sure that they're generating accurate, useful [outputs],” Curran-Groome explained.
As leaders consider adopting AI solutions for permitting, the “AI data readiness” of policies will help not only train the tool more effectively, but also create more “human-readable” housing policies for future use, Axelrod said.
Indeed, Boston began reviewing and revising its zoning code in 2023 as outdated language and “hundreds of piecemeal revisions” posed challenges for housing development, according to a report commissioned by the city.
While “AI seems like it could play a compelling role” in broader housing and permitting reform, “I do think it'll be really important to see some of those other levers that cities are working on concurrent with [AI adoption] to move the needle,” Axelrod said.
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