History lessons for today's housing policy: the politics of low-income housing |
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Authors: | Alexander von Hoffman |
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Affiliation: | 1. Joint Center for Housing Studies, Harvard University , 1033 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge , 02138 , USA alexander_von_hoffman@harvard.edu |
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Abstract: | History offers valuable lessons to housing policymakers. For those who would devise new low-income housing programs during today's trying economic circumstances, it is helpful to study the strategies that succeeded in achieving low-income housing programs in past difficult times. This article, History Lessons for Today's Housing Policy, examines the political processes that led to the adoption of new low-income housing policies during four political crises. The four crises were the Great Depression of the 1930s, the post-World War II housing shortage, the urban crisis of the 1960s, and the policy crisis of the 1970s. Among other history lessons, the article reveals that well-organized political support, especially from large institutions, is crucial to achieving distinctly different new programs; that decentralized programs are more politically resilient than centralized programs; that programs that appeal to the nation's broad middle-class are most popular; and that policy research is valuable but that politics trumps research. |
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Keywords: | low-income housing policy vouchers |
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