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Fixer-Upper
How to Repair America’s Broken Housing Systems
Authors:
Publisher:
2022
Summary
Practical ideas to provide affordable housing to more Americans
Much ink has been spilled in recent years talking about political divides and inequality in the United States. But these discussions too often miss one of the most important factors in the divisions among Americans: the fundamentally unequal nature of the nation’s housing systems. Financially well-off Americans can afford comfortable, stable homes in desirable communities. Millions of other Americans cannot.
And this divide deepens other inequalities. Increasingly, important life outcomes—performance in school, employment, even life expectancy—are determined by where people live and the quality of homes they live in.
Unequal housing systems didn’t just emerge from natural economic and social forces. Public policies enacted by federal, state, and local governments helped create and reinforce the bad housing outcomes endured by too many people. Taxes, zoning, institutional discrimination, and the location and quality of schools, roads, public transit, and other public services are among the policies that created inequalities in the nation’s housing patterns.
Fixer-Upper is the first book assessing how the broad set of local, state, and national housing policies affect people and communities. It does more than describe how yesterday’s policies led to today’s problems. It proposes practical policy changes than can make stable, decent-quality housing more available and affordable for all Americans in all communities.
Fixing systemic problems that arose over decades won’t be easy, in large part because millions of middle-class Americans benefit from the current system and feel threatened by potential changes. But Fixer-Upper suggests ideas for building political coalitions among diverse groups that share common interests in putting better housing within reach for more Americans, building a more equitable and healthy country.
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Bibliographic data
Copyright Year
2022
ISBN-Print
978-0-8157-3928-9
ISBN-Online
978-0-8157-3929-6
Publisher
Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham
Language
English
Pages
backcover1
Product Type
Monograph
Table of contents
ChapterPages
Preface No access Pages i - viii
Housing sits at the Intersection of Several Complex Systems No access Pages 1 - 12
Build More Homes Where People Want to Live No access Pages 13 - 36
Stop Building Homes in the Wrong Places No access Pages 37 - 60
Give Poor People Money No access Pages 61 - 80
Homeownership Should Be Only One Component of Household Wealth No access Pages 81 - 98
High-Quality Community Infrastructure Is Expensive, But It Benefits Everyone No access Pages 99 - 124
Overcoming the Limits of Localism No access Pages 125 - 144
Build Political Coalitions around Better Policies No access Pages 145 - 168
