This housing fix could help build more homes. But firefighters are sounding the alarm.
Prince Georges County firefighters spray water on the Wynfield Park Apartments after a fire broke out at the Beltsville, Maryland, complex on the morning of August, 21, 2023. Robb Hill for The Washington Post via Getty Images
At the center of the housing debate are building codes, and whether states’ bids to update them to address the affordable housing crises poses safety risks to the individuals they are trying to help.
The U.S. needs an additional 4.3 million apartment units in the next decade to match the growing demand for affordable housing, experts project. But housing development is often stymied by bureaucratic processes and regulations, like stringent land use restrictions and permitting requirements.
“There are all these different rules that [governments] have in place to make it either impossible or incredibly difficult and expensive to build more homes,” said Matthew Lewis, director of communications for California YIMBY, a nonprofit that advocates for affordable housing.
Building codes, for instance, are one mechanism that Lewis said could inadvertently thwart housing development amid a dire housing crisis. While codes often establish minimum safety standards for a building, like how gas or plumbing systems should be configured, they can also create barriers to creating new housing units.
Lewis pointed to building codes that call for multistory apartments to include more than one stairwell exit. Stairwell corridors and exits can take up a large chunk of a building’s floor space, which “has the impact of both reducing the number of homes you can build in an existing area and driving up the per unit cost,” he said.
Changes to those codes could help expedite states’ efforts to increase the housing supply, as well as make room for more energy efficient designs such as more or bigger windows to lessen the strain on heating or cooling systems. But public safety experts warn that these changes shouldn’t come at the cost of resident safety.
At least 11 states have passed or introduced legislation in recent years aimed at easing building codes regarding the required number of exits in some apartment buildings.
In May, for instance, Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont signed a bill that allows residences with more than three stories and up to four units to have a single-stair exit. The bill updates the state’s previous building code, which limited single-stair exits to buildings up to three stories tall. Colorado lawmakers introduced a bill in February that would require local authorities to adopt building codes that allow multifamily housing buildings with up to five stories to have just one exit.
The policies, however, are catching the attention of the fire safety community, which argues that fewer stairwell exits could negatively impact residents’ safety during emergencies.
In North Carolina, for instance, two men died in May in a fire at an apartment building that only had one functioning exit due to construction on the facility. As flames and smoke engulfed their home, they were stuck “about a football field away” from the exit, The Charlotte Observer reported. The men’s remains were later found in the rubble.
A fire event in an apartment building could be disastrous if residents are trying to flee from the flames on the same stairwell firefighters are trying to get up so they can suppress the fire, said Greg Rogers, chair of the International Association of Fire Chiefs' Fire and Life Safety Section.
Some states are taking a slower approach to amending their building codes in light of these concerns. In California, for instance, a bill approved late last year requires the state fire marshal to research the safety and feasibility of single-stairway residences with multiple stories, Lewis of California YIMBY said. The findings of that study, due Jan. 1, 2026, will impact the state’s adoption of a new building code allowing residential facilities with more than three stories to have a single stairway exit. Similar efforts are underway in New York and Virginia.
Rogers still has concerns. Policymakers, he said, may be overconfident in the resources fire departments have to navigate single stairway residences.
Proponents of the updated building codes cite agencies’ ladder trucks as a solution to concerns about single exits, for instance. But many communities have a limited number of such vehicles to be shared across an entire community, Rogers said. They also require additional staff to operate, which runs the risk of diverting firefighters from putting out the fire at hand.
That’s particularly worrisome, he added, given most fire departments are voluntary and have been experiencing ongoing staff shortages.
Rogers said that while fire proofing measures in apartment buildings like self-closing doors or smoke detectors can help address the implications of fewer stairwell exits, those elements depend on timely and routine inspections and replacements.
“All you need is one of those things to go wrong,” he said, “and you’re going to have a tragedy on your hands.”
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