McDonnell Professor of Justice in American Society

Passionately committed to increasing affordable housing for Missourians, Pete Salsich has spent 30 years exploring local land use laws.

“One of the reasons low and moderate income Missourians have difficulty finding affordable housing is the prevalence of restrictive local zoning laws,” says Professor Salsich. “The laws restrict much of the land to single-family housing on relatively large lots. Being humans, developers are going to build homes large enough on those lots to recover their investment in the land and the materials. The result — houses that are way out of the reach of low and moderate income families.”

During his 2003 sabbatical, Salsich reviewed and began tying together his ample scholarship — six books, more than a dozen book chapters and more than 30 articles — examining the relationship between affordable housing efforts and local land use laws.

His interest was ignited in the late 1960s at the same time several new federal housing programs were established. On a plane ride, he read about a novel program in New York using revenue from tax-exempt bonds to make home loans to low and moderate income families. He returned home and began drafting a proposal for the Missouri Housing Development Commission (MHDC). With the help of supportive legislative sponsors, the Missouri General Assembly approved the commission in 1969. Professor Salsich was its first chairman. Since its inception, the MHDC has invested almost $4 billion in the production of affordable rental housing and provided homeownership opportunities for thousands of families covering every county of the state.

“Now that we’ve figured out how to finance housing,” Salsich says, “we have to figure out how to persuade communities that other types of housing, such as smaller single-family units on smaller lots, single-family attached dwellings or apartments can be beneficial.”

Ever an advocate, Professor Salsich is a former chairman of the ABA’s Commission on Homelessness and Poverty and former chair of the Ecumenical Housing Production Corporation (now Beyond Housing, Inc.). He is also a former editor of the ABA’s Journal of Affordable Housing and Community Development Law. Salsich was chair of the Mayor’s Housing Task Force and a member of the Mitchell-Danforth Task Force on the Low Income Housing Tax Credit and Legal Services of Eastern Missouri.

Professor Salsich joined the School of Law in 1968 after two years with the Missouri Office of State and Regional Planning, and a year in private practice. In addition to his teaching duties, Salsich has served as the School’s dean for academic affairs and student services. He has a joint appointment in the Department of Public Policy Studies in the College of Public Service.