LANDLOCKED by Policy

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Why America’s housing crisis is no accident

 

For decades, housing affordability has been framed as an inevitable consequence of growth, demand, or market forces beyond anyone’s control. But across high-cost regions, a different pattern has quietly emerged.

Landlocked by Policy examines how growth management shifted from guiding development to constraining opportunity—and how those constraints shape prices, rents, commutes, taxes, and the real financial choices people can make about work, family, and stability.

 

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Importantly, this book does not stop at diagnosis. It introduces the Income Covenant Model, a practical framework designed to reconnect housing costs to income, expand access to ownership, and restore affordability without relying on subsidies, speculation, or price controls.

 

As land use rules narrowed where homes could be built—and which types were allowed—scarcity became policy, not coincidence. Starter homes disappeared. Entry points closed. Costs rose, not because land ran out, but because choices did.
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About the Author

Brian Gass is a real estate agent and Designated Broker of ONE Real Estate Inc. After years of working directly with buyers, sellers, and builders, he saw how housing affordability was slipping out of reach for average households, not because people stopped working hard but because the system governing housing had quietly changed.

In response, he founded the Real Housing Reform Initiative, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit focused on reexamining how housing is planned, priced,and regulated. Through research, policy analysis, and practical reform models, the organization works to restore housingaffordability by expanding choice, aligning costs with incomes, and reconnecting housing policy to real-world outcomes.