The United States is in the throes of a housing crisis, framed by the media as a crisis of affordability. People pay too much for housing鈥攁nd the solution, it seems, is to increase the supply to drive down the cost. But the national conversation on housing affordability ignores the issue of housing quality. Most people find affordable housing not through public subsidies but by purchasing or renting older housing in the private market. For older housing to be affordable, it is almost always in disrepair and/or is in a disinvested neighborhood with low market values. Little noticed by the media, millions of American homeowners and renters live in unsafe and unhealthy housing.
The Other Housing Crisis brings attention to the neglected issue of housing deterioration and makes the case for more investment in home repairs. Contributions by expert researchers and experienced practitioners examine how housing deterioration harms the physical, mental, and financial health of residents and damages the environment. Chapters highlight innovative home repair programs in cities across the country鈥攆rom Austin to Memphis to Philadelphia.
The analysis and recommendations in The Other Housing Crisis will help policymakers and practitioners to curb the loss of affordable housing and place housing deterioration and home repair squarely on the national policy agenda. Addressing America鈥檚 housing crisis is not a matter of either increasing the supply of housing or preserving existing housing. We need to do both鈥攏ow.
Todd Swanstrom is the Des Lee Professor of Community Collaboration and Public Policy Administration at the University of Missouri–St. Louis and the coauthor of Place Matters and The Changing American Neighborhood. A. T. Harrison is executive director of the Community Land Trust of Western North Carolina. Alan Mallach is senior fellow at the Center for Community Progress and author of The Divided City and Smaller Cities in a Shrinking World.
“Housing is a social and economic resource. Housing is also physical and environmental infrastructure. In this volume, the authors and editors identify the scale of the contemporary problem of neglected housing stock. As savvy observers of resources and infrastructure, they suggest interventions and solutions to do more than plug the holes in the dikes.”—Carlos Mart铆n, VP at Resources for the Future and former director of Harvard Remodeling Futures
“There’s a reason people say we are fighting for ‘safe, decent affordable housing.’ Affordability must be paired with quality. The Other Housing Crisis makes this case from all angles—showing how housing quality and housing repair affect housing supply, neighborhood trajectories, and people’s health—and what we should do about it. Anyone making housing policy should turn to the lessons in this volume.”—Miriam Axel-Lute, CEO and editor in chief of Shelterforce
“While there is a growing consensus that housing is the issue of our time, too little attention is being paid to preserving and improving existing housing. This book does just that. It goes deep to show there may be a path forward for communities hoping to preserve existing housing and reinvigorate once-forgotten places. The authors provide a compelling description of workable solutions that have proven to be effective. This is a must-read for policymakers, developers, and anyone concerned with breathing life into vacant and underutilized places.”—Dan Kildee, president and CEO of the Community Foundation of Greater Flint and former US Congressman
This publication has been produced to meet accepted Accessibility standards and contains various accessibility features including concise image descriptions, a table of contents, a page list to navigate to pages corresponding to the print source version, and elements such as headings for structured navigation. Appearance of the text and page layout can be modified according to the capabilities of the reading system.
Accessibility Features
-
WCAG v2.2
-
WCAG level AA
-
Table of contents navigation
-
Single logical reading order
-
Short alternative textual descriptions
-
Print-equivalent page numbering
-
Landmark navigation
-
Index navigation
-
Epub Accessibility Specification 1.1
-
ARIA roles provided
-
All non-decorative content supports reading without sight
-
No known hazards or warnings