Business View Magazine | April 2021

26 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE APRIL 2021 across Kansas and Missouri to ensure that our members could continue to provide housing, which contributed to a 13 percent increase in single-family permits in 2020 compared to 2019. The three “Ls” are the industry’s biggest challenges: land, labor, and lumber. As the cost of development continues to rise, its impact becomes more pronounced on the growth of our communities. Infrastructure, design and development, and planning, zoning and subdivision regulations can all be barriers to the success of a project. Regulations are certainly necessary to ensure that safe, sturdy homes can be brought to market, but our goal is to work with local leaders to ensure a balanced approach between economic and environmental systems so that costs do not exceed the benefit. Labor is another challenge. A skilled workforce that is capable of meeting the housing demand is vital to home builders. Despite competitive pay, the home-building industry continues to experience labor shortages, which impacts housing affordability. The KCHBA’s Workforce Development Committee has been diligently promoting jobs in the skilled trades in several ways. The KC Manufacturing and Design Expo (KC MADE) is a contest among high school students (grades 9-12) in construction and manufacturing programs to promote careers in the residential construction industry. The KC MADE competition focuses not only on promoting skilled trade development and opportunities in the home- building industry, but also the importance of soft skills and connecting education to industry stakeholders. Participants have the freedom to enter everything from a tiny house to a dining room table. KCHBA also provides student tours of homes on the spring and fall Parade of Homes. This programming includes educational content discussing all that goes into building a home, from foundation to finish.