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Welcome to Sightline Institute’s redesigned website!

You’ll find our same top-notch solutions research, just with a fresh new look. Learn more here about new features, or simply browse as usual. 

Housing + Cities

Building a sustainable future together

Welcoming more homes, of all shapes and sizes, in Cascadia’s towns and cities.  

Latest research + analysis

Housing + Cities

Three Ways Anchorage Leaders Could Unlock More Homes

The ordinances under consideration offer commonsense solutions to address the city’s longstanding housing shortage.

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To Stop Building Heat Islands, Stop Overbuilding Parking Lots

Parking lots amplify high temperatures. Why are we still requiring them to be larger than they need to be?
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Will Washington Do The Right Thing on Backyard Homes This Year?

Years of delay on reforms for in-law apartments has denied homes to thousands.
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Washington Bill Would Legalize Hundreds of Thousands More Homes

Allowing “middle housing” options would ease the state’s shortage of homes and right historic wrongs.
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Backyard Homes Are Great for Owners of Small Homes

In Portland, almost one in six residential lots has a small detached home. Many of those 23,486 backyards would be great spots for more homes—if they were legal.
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Meet your researcher

Jeannette Lee

Alaska Research Director

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Sightline’s work is made possible by the generosity of people like you.

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Meet the Team

Dan Bertolet

Senior Director of Housing + Cities

Dan is passionate about creating cities that welcome people of all incomes and tread lightly on the planet.

Michael Andersen

Director, Cities + Towns

Michael writes about ways better municipal policy can help break poverty cycles, with a focus on housing and transportation.

Catie Gould

Senior Researcher

Catie is a Senior Transportation Researcher for Sightline Institute, specializing in parking policy.

Alice Buckley

Fellow

Alice leads Sightline’s efforts in Montana, supporting local initiatives for abundant housing and stronger democracy in Big Sky Country.

Julia Metz

Fellow

Julia is a Fellow with Sightline bringing nearly a decade of experience in the housing field. 

Daniel Oleksiuk

Fellow

Daniel is a Fellow for Sightline Institute and a lawyer, writer, and organizer. 

The math is simple. When people choose to live closer to each other, they voluntarily cut their energy use in half. When people are able to make that choice, it makes our planet healthier, our communities more prosperous, and our society more fair. Literally everybody wins.  

But over the years, we’ve buried deep in our laws a variety of blocks to this voluntary sustainable decision: the innately human choice to be closer to one other. Sometimes this has happened with the best intentions, and other times our human tendencies have driven us to hoard and to exclude. Sightline’s Housing and Cities team identifies agreements across ideological lines that give Cascadians the freedom to make the sustainable choices so many of us want. 

Learn more about our Housing + Cities research projects below.

Beyond parking mandates

Data and insights on the growing movement to break free from parking mandates

Resource: Middle Housing Photos

Our Modest Middle Homes Library is a resource for abundant housing advocates, urbanists, planners, and journalists.

Video: 90-second housing explainers

A decade of successes against fossil fuel exports in Cascadia.

Author Q&A: Housing and homelessness

Research and policy recommendations to prune the gas system, scale electrification, and protect ratepayers.

50%

Reduction in energy use by people living in cities (needs more context)

$30-50,000

Cost of a structured parking space

Latest research + analysis

Housing + Cities

Three Ways Anchorage Leaders Could Unlock More Homes

The ordinances under consideration offer commonsense solutions to address the city’s longstanding housing shortage.

Read More