Transformation of Affordable-Housing Policy Illuminated in New Historical Analysis

Abstract

The Housing Policy Revolution: Networks and Neighborhoods from the Urban Institute Press traces the shift in U.S. housing policy from the Washington-led bureaucracies of the 1960s to today's highly collaborative, tax-supported networks of advocates, local governments, bankers, and property developers.

Contact: Simona Combi, (202) 261-5709, scombi@urban.org

WASHINGTON, D.C., September 9, 2009—The Housing Policy Revolution: Networks and Neighborhoods from the Urban Institute Press traces the shift in U.S. housing policy from the Washington-led bureaucracies of the 1960s to today's highly collaborative, tax-supported networks of advocates, local governments, bankers, and property developers. Through historical analysis and detailed case studies, economic historian David J. Erickson reveals a system that adjusted to a changing political climate, innovated in social program delivery, and triggered adaptation in other policy fields, including education.

Erickson chronicles the vigorous pace of public-housing construction during the Great Society years, the deterioration and decay of housing projects and urban centers in the late 1960s and 1970s, and the subsequent backlash and federal cutbacks on social programs during Ronald Reagan's presidency. The author insists, however, that the state of affordable housing policy is more nuanced than this timeline would indicate. “The problem with this story,” he writes, “is that you might have trouble hearing it over the din of construction of the more than 2 million federally subsidized apartments for low-income tenants built between 1986 and 2006.”

Who built these subsidized apartments if, as Erickson writes, the Department of Housing and Urban Development has been out of the housing construction business since 1978? According to Erickson, federal withdrawal underscored for housing activists, local governments, and some private businesses the import of their own work for affordable housing. “The federal cuts that threatened to choke off the decentralized housing network,” he says, “did the opposite: they spurred it on.”

These strengthened networks were poised to maximize new affordable-housing investments enacted in 1986 and over the next two decades, such as the Community Development Block Grant and the Low Income Housing Tax Credit. According to Erickson, by 2008 there were nearly 33 percent more homes built under these new government finance programs than there were subsidized apartments built by all the HUD-sponsored programs dating back to the 1960s.

The author evaluates the housing networks' successes beyond the number of units built. He writes that the collaborative process typical of such networks often prevents mistakes in construction or financing, eliminates the partisan tensions that often stall social programs, and constructs higher-quality housing better suited to residents' needs. Erickson acknowledges weaknesses in the system too, noting though building affordable housing by network is efficient, the percent of household seriously in need of affordable housing has not dropped since 1971. Decentralized housing programs accommodate only a fraction of eligible tenants, and apartments in the new programs are often occupied by the working poor, not the most needy. Erickson notes, however, that even many longtime housing advocates do not hope for a return to centralized housing policy, but rather better funding for the modern, networked approach.

The Housing Policy Revolution does more than size up the history and impact of housing networks; it sees networked policymaking as the new standard for social policy. As Erickson writes, “The influence of this model, first developed in the delivery of affordable housing, is even greater, however, because it is now providing an inspiration for policy areas as diverse as economic development, education, health, and the environment.”

David Erickson directs the Center for Community Development Investments at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and edits the Federal Reserve journal Community Development Investment Review. He has a Ph.D. in history from the University of California, Berkeley, with a focus on economic history and public policy.

The Housing Policy Revolution: Networks and Neighborhoods, by David J. Erickson, is available from the Urban Institute Press. (ISBN 978-0-87766-760-5, paperback, 254 pages, $29.50). Order online at http://www.uipress.org, call 410-516-6956, or dial 1-800-537-5487 toll-free. Read more, including the introductory chapter, at http://www.urban.org/books/housingrevolution.

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