What do you think?
Rate this book
Housing the Nation: Social Equity, Architecture, and the Future of Affordable Housing
Scholars, advocates, and architects assess America’s affordable housing crisis and suggest various strategies to rectify it, including numerous images of important, recently built houses and complexes.
On any given night, more than 500,000 people in the United States—many with families and full-time jobs—experience homelessness. The shortfall in affordable housing is estimated to be 5 million units or more. Devastating effects of these conditions include an increase in multigenerational poverty, a decrease in economic mobility, and—since the housing crisis has a disproportionate impact on communities of color—a heightening of racial injustice.
Just as there was no single cause of the crisis, there is no single cure. Assembled here are essays by economists, scholars, architects, planners, and community organizers to address diverse aspects of the subject. The book discusses the history and extent of the US housing crisis; permanent affordable housing and affordable housing as a component of market-rate residential buildings; the development of community associations that can build and manage local units; links between housing production and climate change; and the pervasive and long-term consequences of racial discrimination in the housing market. Recent buildings by Studio Gang, Koning Eizenberg Architecture, and others illustrate affordable housing at its best, offering a glimpse of possible solutions.
Included are essays by Dean Baker, Richard Florida, Robert Kuttner, Michael Gecan, Rosanne Haggerty, J. Phillip Thompson, Margery Perlmutter, David Dante Troutt, Justin Steil, Christopher Hawthorne, David Burney, Jon McMillan, Viren Brahmbhatt, Richard Plunz, Kenneth Frampton, Mark Ginsberg, Fernando Pagés Ruiz, Jessica Holmes, Rusty Smith, Andrés Duany, Alan Organschi, Andrew Ruff, and Elizabeth Gray.
On any given night, more than 500,000 people in the United States—many with families and full-time jobs—experience homelessness. The shortfall in affordable housing is estimated to be 5 million units or more. Devastating effects of these conditions include an increase in multigenerational poverty, a decrease in economic mobility, and—since the housing crisis has a disproportionate impact on communities of color—a heightening of racial injustice.
Just as there was no single cause of the crisis, there is no single cure. Assembled here are essays by economists, scholars, architects, planners, and community organizers to address diverse aspects of the subject. The book discusses the history and extent of the US housing crisis; permanent affordable housing and affordable housing as a component of market-rate residential buildings; the development of community associations that can build and manage local units; links between housing production and climate change; and the pervasive and long-term consequences of racial discrimination in the housing market. Recent buildings by Studio Gang, Koning Eizenberg Architecture, and others illustrate affordable housing at its best, offering a glimpse of possible solutions.
Included are essays by Dean Baker, Richard Florida, Robert Kuttner, Michael Gecan, Rosanne Haggerty, J. Phillip Thompson, Margery Perlmutter, David Dante Troutt, Justin Steil, Christopher Hawthorne, David Burney, Jon McMillan, Viren Brahmbhatt, Richard Plunz, Kenneth Frampton, Mark Ginsberg, Fernando Pagés Ruiz, Jessica Holmes, Rusty Smith, Andrés Duany, Alan Organschi, Andrew Ruff, and Elizabeth Gray.
- GenresArchitecture
240 pages, Paperback
Published March 26, 2024
4 people are currently reading
180 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 2, 2024
Very much a textbook which made it a difficult nighttime read. This book goes into depth on the many intersecting factors leading to our housing crisis. I do wish the charts, diagrams, and photos from the referenced locations continued past chapter 2. The last 80 pages being portfolio photos could have been sprinkled throughout.
December 17, 2024
- "The US housing market is so riddled with distortions that it cannot function normally"
Overall: a bit verbose and lengthy sentences (in some articles), but generally good
- a thorough story about the racial, labour and urban planning post-war, especially crackdown on labour unions and certain labor market regulations
- minimum wage not keeping up with inflation worsens workers' affordability of housing
- government siding with pharmaceutical and big financial firms also worsens the picture
- if any US administration can put an end to 1998 Faircloth amendment and start referring to examples in Asia, then poor people can live their flats but that comes at a price of offending real estate consortium
My solutions:
- e.g. set up a trust (funded by government/other taxes) > government building subsidised flats/public housing flats (50% of a public housing project paying affordable rents, 50% of a subsidised project paying affordable selling price) [with means test at the beginning + fiscal position report every two years, failing of which: confiscating flat/jail] > income from car park lots and revenue from shopping mall rents will be subsidising the government's investment in the flats
-- adoption of Modular Integrated Construction (MiC) to lower cost of construction; construction of high-rise buildings of 30-storey to save up space; housing estate formation with multi-storey carpark and other social facilities such as kindergarten, a common hall for activities and votes, or a canteen, depending on the target population; heightening the buildings by inserting more empty space on the ground and adopting a void deck, thereby mitigating the risks brought by rising sea levels
-- conversion of industrial buildings/complexes into usable housing flats
-- promotion of smaller flats and expedition of occupation by singleton/couples
-- restriction on re-sales of subsidised/public housing flat to applicants of the same status
Overall: a bit verbose and lengthy sentences (in some articles), but generally good
- a thorough story about the racial, labour and urban planning post-war, especially crackdown on labour unions and certain labor market regulations
- minimum wage not keeping up with inflation worsens workers' affordability of housing
- government siding with pharmaceutical and big financial firms also worsens the picture
- if any US administration can put an end to 1998 Faircloth amendment and start referring to examples in Asia, then poor people can live their flats but that comes at a price of offending real estate consortium
My solutions:
- e.g. set up a trust (funded by government/other taxes) > government building subsidised flats/public housing flats (50% of a public housing project paying affordable rents, 50% of a subsidised project paying affordable selling price) [with means test at the beginning + fiscal position report every two years, failing of which: confiscating flat/jail] > income from car park lots and revenue from shopping mall rents will be subsidising the government's investment in the flats
-- adoption of Modular Integrated Construction (MiC) to lower cost of construction; construction of high-rise buildings of 30-storey to save up space; housing estate formation with multi-storey carpark and other social facilities such as kindergarten, a common hall for activities and votes, or a canteen, depending on the target population; heightening the buildings by inserting more empty space on the ground and adopting a void deck, thereby mitigating the risks brought by rising sea levels
-- conversion of industrial buildings/complexes into usable housing flats
-- promotion of smaller flats and expedition of occupation by singleton/couples
-- restriction on re-sales of subsidised/public housing flat to applicants of the same status
December 14, 2025
On any given night over 500,000 Americans, many of them with full time jobs, will experience homelessness. This well curated collection of essays explores the reasons for the increasing affordable housing shortfall and numerous potential solutions. Numerous photographs of existing projects as well as a combined portfolio help break up the text which is remarkably readable. This would be a fantastic big read for a community, particularly one interested in solving these problems together.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews