When U.S. governors gathered in Washington this February, Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte… shared a practical political lesson about the nation’s housing shortage. He detailed his state’s efforts to add homes by removing restrictions on development, in response to a surge in the state’s population. Gianforte offered a simple sales pitch to disarm the opposition to new development. “Every time I got pushback from the left or the right in our legislature, I would say, ‘Do we want our nurses, teachers and police officers to live in the community where they work?’” the governor said. The result was a package of reforms passed in 2023, and he cited early progress: rents have dropped over the past year. Across the country, there are states and municipalities tackling the same pervasive but tedious problem: overly restrictive zoning that makes it challenging or nearly impossible to build new housing.