ChangeMakers with Katie Goar

Episode 146: Jared Jones Co-Founder, Middle Housing Partners

Jared Jones · April 28, 2026

Entrepreneurin

Interview with Jared Jones

Episode 146: Jared Jones Co-Founder, Middle Housing Partners

Podcast: ChangeMakers with Katie Goar

April 28, 2026 · 44 min

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Episode 146: Jared Jones Co-Founder, Middle Housing Partners

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Key topicsWhy California real estate risk is misunderstood by most investorsMany investors treat California as inherently unpredictable and therefore uninvestable. Jared reframes that belief by separating regulatory complexity from actual uncertainty, explaining that risk becomes more manageable when timelines, permitting patterns, and constraints are well understood. His perspective comes from working repeatedly inside the system, not avoiding it. What our housing choices reveal about the society we’re becomingHousing is often framed as a technical or political problem, but Jared approaches it as a cultural one shaped by everyday decisions. Drawing on what he’s seen building housing in California, he explores how normalizing scarcity reshapes expectations around family life, mobility, and who gets to belong in certain communities. The conversation invites listeners to see housing not just as infrastructure, but as a quiet force that determines whose lives are made easier and whose become constrained. How housing scarcity shows up in everyday family decisionsRather than treating housing as a distant policy issue, Jared brings it into everyday life through what he’s seen building in California neighborhoods. He explains how limited housing supply narrows where families can live, how far they commute, and whether they can stay connected to their communities. Drawing on real-world development experience, he helps listeners see how small, incremental housing choices-or the absence of them-shape family life long before anyone calls it a housing crisis. View all topics →

About Jared Jones

Founder of Middle Housing Partners and Expert in Micro-Infill Housing, Working at the Intersection of Policy, Execution, and Community

15 years Real estate development experience536 Successful projects in the firm track record600+ Housing units built by Middle Housing Partners$100M+ Assets managed by Middle Housing Partners

Jared Jones came into real estate by paying attention to what wasn’t working. He saw how traditional development often moves slowly, favors scale over fit, and leaves large gaps between housing need and what actually gets built. Families were priced out of growing cities, neighborhoods were locked in place by zoning that no longer matched reality, and investors were left waiting years for projects to stabilize.

After more than 15 years in real estate development, Jared co-founded Middle Housing Partners to focus on a specific problem: how to add housing within existing neighborhoods without relying on large, drawn-out projects. The firm works on micro-infill housing—ADUs, duplexes, triplexes, and small multifamily buildings—designed to fit into the fabric of established communities.

Jared’s work has taken place across hundreds of projects in California, where development is shaped as much by process as by design. His experience sits at the overlap of policy and execution: pulling permits, working through local interpretation of regulations, and refining development approaches that make smaller sites viable. The properties themselves are often modest—underused lots, backyard housing, overlooked parcels—but they reflect a belief that housing supply can be expanded incrementally rather than all at once.

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About this episode

America doesn’t have a housing construction problem. It has a rules problem.

In this episode of ChangeMakers with Katie Goar,Jared Jones, co-founder of Middle Housing Partners, breaks down how microfill housing, ADUs, duplexes, and small multi-unit developments are reshaping affordability.

Jared explains why millions of homes are missing from the market, how outdated zoning laws slowed growth for decades, and how new legislation is opening the door for everyday developers to build again.

You’ll hear why nurses, teachers, and working families are priced out of their own communities, and how small-scale housing projects are bringing them back.

If you care about housing, policy, or the future of your community, this conversation lays out a clear path forward.

00:00 Intro

00:13 Meet Jared Jones and Middle Housing Partners

01:10 From mortgage industry to housing developer

02:32 What is microfill housing?

03:51 How new laws changed development

06:36 Why zoning reform matters

09:30 How neighborhoods react to new housing

12:25 The real scale of the housing shortage

14:18 Why building takes too long

16:12 Why Wall Street dominates housing

18:40 SB9 and new housing laws explained