According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, a record-high 653,104 people were experiencing homelessness on a single night in January 2023. This crisis has been exacerbated by a severe shortage of affordable housing, with the National Low-Income Housing Coalition reporting a deficit of 7.3 million affordable rental homes for low-income renters.

At first glance, these statistics might seem to call for more government intervention. However, a deeper analysis reveals that many of our current housing woes stem from misguided government policies that have distorted the market and created artificial scarcity.

Zoning laws and building regulations, often championed as protections for communities, have in reality severely restricted the supply of housing. Restrictive zoning laws have become a silent catalyst for the homelessness crisis, creating artificial housing shortages that drive prices beyond the reach of working-class Americans. In Arizona, for instance, homelessness surged by 51.5% between 2017 and 2022, a direct consequence of municipal regulations that strangle housing development. By limiting the types of housing that can be built and imposing costly requirements on developers, these regulations have effectively priced many Americans out of the housing market.