When Patricia McGee moved her four children from an apartment in Dallas to a single‑family rental home in Rockwall, Texas, the change was immediate. “It’s peaceful, quiet,” she shared. “You don’t hear gunshots.” Her children’s new school issued laptops as part of a digital‑learning initiative and provided homework help that had not been available to them before.

McGee did not buy a home. She rented one ‒ using a federal housing voucher in a suburb where families like hers have long been shut out.

Across the country, families who rely on the rental market or federal housing assistance struggle to access neighborhoods with strong schools, safe streets and economic opportunity. Despite soaring housing costs, many communities continue to restrict development through zoning laws that limit what gets built and who gets to live in certain neighborhoods. The promise of the Fair Housing Act of 1968 ‒ to foster “truly integrated and balanced living patterns” ‒ remains only partially realized.

At a time when affordable housing developments frequently encounter resistance, single‑family rental homes have quietly become one of the few practical ways that lower‑ and moderate‑income families can enter high‑opportunity suburbs. For families who cannot afford to buy ‒ and who often find few apartment options because of zoning ‒ these rental homes offer a critical, if imperfect, bridge to opportunity.

'Something better for the children'

A single‑family home still sits at the center of the American dream. These homes are typically located in neighborhoods with stronger schools, safer streets and better long‑term outcomes for children ‒ precisely the places where renters are least welcome.

McGee’s experience reflects what child development researchers have long documented: Stable housing in safe, well‑resourced communities is linked to healthier development and stronger educational outcomes.

Another Dallas mother, Jasmine Halton, hoped to use her housing voucher to rent a single‑family home in Garland, a nearby suburb. After years of living in apartments, she dreamed of “something better for the children, maybe a backyard for them to run in.”

But for too many families like hers, that dream remains elusive. Federal law does not require landlords to accept vouchers, and only a minority of states prohibit refusals. In many suburbs, apartments are scarce by design.

To help families, reform local zoning laws

The biggest obstacle these families face is not just a lack of federal support. It is also local land use policy. Many cities zone most of their residential land exclusively for single‑family homes, limiting supply and shutting out renters.

Courts around the country have found that strict density limits, large‑lot zoning and other local rules effectively exclude lower‑income families and reinforce segregation.

This resistance to rental housing has deep roots. A century ago, the Supreme Court upheld zoning rules designed to keep apartment buildings out of single‑family neighborhoods, describing apartments as inherently out of place.

Versions of that logic still shape land use decisions today. Apartments remain concentrated in lower‑income areas, while large swaths of high‑opportunity neighborhoods remain closed to renters.

Some communities go even further. Land use rules imposing high fees on rental properties make it difficult, and sometimes impossible, for families who do not own homes to live there. For example, Madison, a wealthy suburb of Jackson, Mississippi, requires landlords to post a $25,000 surety bond per rental unit ‒ a requirement that discourages renting altogether.

Too often, public conversations about housing frame renting as a fallback ‒ something people do only when they cannot buy.

But for millions of families, renting is not a temporary step or a marker of failure. It is the way they secure stability, proximity to opportunity and a safe place to raise their children. In many suburbs that limit apartments and resist integration, single‑family rental homes have become one of the few viable routes into neighborhoods that offer those advantages.

These rental homes are not a comprehensive solution. They do not replace the need for equitable zoning, more housing supply or strong fair housing enforcement. But for families like Patricia McGee’s, they open a door that has long been closed.

Every family deserves a neighborhood that is peaceful and safe, with schools that support their children and space to grow. That reality should not be reserved only for households with the means to purchase a home.

Jade A. Craig is an assistant professor of law at the University of Mississippi, where he teaches fair housing, real estate and civil rights law. He previously served as special policy adviser to the assistant secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development during the Obama administration. His research focuses on residential segregation, land use policy, and the intersection of housing and civil rights.

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