New Apartment Buildings Are Good for Housing Affordability—and Fire Safety, Too

With the United States facing a severe housing shortage, multistory apartment buildings could provide homes to a great many Americans.

However, concerns about increased fire risk often dissuade policymakers from making zoning laws friendly for apartment buildings. They shouldn’t.

In a first-of-its-kind study, The Pew Charitable Trusts found that modern apartment buildings are six times safer than all other types of housing—whether apartment buildings built before 2000 or single-family homes.

Watch as Milwaukee’s Fire Chief Aaron Lipski and Caledonia, Wisconsin, Battalion Chief Erich Roden share how their experiences align with Pew’s findings—and what those findings could mean for housing affordability in the U.S.