In the first ShelterWF podcast episode, host Keegan Siebenaler talks with ShelterWF co-founder and Livable Flathead executive director Nathan Dugan about Strong Towns’ “housing trap,” where communities say they need both ever-rising home prices and affordable housing. They discuss how U.S. policy over decades turned housing into a financial instrument, leading government to intervene to prevent price declines, chronic underbuilding since the 1980s, and rising prices that benefit existing homeowners, local governments, and the finance sector while harming renters, first-time buyers, and the poor. The conversation critiques rigid, top-down zoning and regulatory barriers (including fire codes) that limit “missing middle” housing and encourage only single-family subdivisions or large apartments. They argue subsidized/deed-restricted housing can’t sca ...