Housing and child care, two essential ingredients for thriving families and communities, have been hot topics in recent years and continue to get hotter. Adoption, on the other hand, was a sleeper issue until it broke through following the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Now more legislators are reconsidering adoption laws in their states.
Which of these issues will gain traction in your state in 2023?
Forecast ’23
This story is part of a State Legislatures News special report examining the hot topics and legislative trends that will dominate state lawmakers’ time in 2023.
Forecast home
Hot Topic—Housing
Until recently, the supply and affordability of housing was largely in the hands of city and county officials. Now a growing number of state legislators are seeking solutions for the extreme lack of safe, stable, affordable housing in urban, suburban and rural communities. No state or region is immune as the crisis works its way up the income ladder.
No state has an adequate supply of housing for its lowest-income renters. The hourly income needed to rent a modest home varies by state, from below $17 to $40. While many states have increased their minimum wages, nowhere has it been enough to keep up with the cost of housing. The pandemic as made matters worse, with rents increasing by an average of 18% over the last five years. Often due to a lack of affordable rental homes, an estimated 3.7 million people live in doubled-up households.