ABSTRACT
Conventional housing policies have drawn a divide between the public and private sectors. Their failure to work together has resulted in a deep affordable housing crisis for most working Americans. The policy framework presented here bridges this divide based on the historical experiences in this country, as well as successful models from other advanced countries. They involve institutional, taxation and financial reforms that will need to be part of a larger social movement. Housing policy should address both the existing stock as well as the new stock. The current stock of apartments and single-family homes needs to be kept affordable. Multifamily loans need to be made cheaper, and tax benefits passed through to landlords reduced, in order to keep rents low. Single-family housing should not be used as a tax shelter, and investments in primary residences should be incentivized. Other methods to maintain affordability include labor-sponsored housing, worker and resident cooperatives, community-based land banks of vacant lots and abandoned homes. To create new housing stock, there needs to be an enterprise Housing Development and Finance Agency responsible for building, funding and regulating housing. Its functions would be similar to Singapore’s Housing and Development Board. To recover from the pandemic-induced recession, the agency needs to perform emergency rebuilding functions that harness the collective capacity for concerted social action.
