A Right to Housing

Foundation for a New Social Agenda

Rachel Bratt, Michael Stone, Chester Hartman, Rachel Bratt, Michael Stone, Chester Hartman

• Publisher: Temple University Press
• Year: 2006
• Print ISBN:
  9781592134328
  9781592134311
• eBook ISBN:
  9781592134335
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: City Planning & Urban Development
• Index: Social Sciences

In the 1949 Housing Act, Congress declared "a decent home and a suitable living environment for every American family" our national housing goal. Today, little more than half a century later, upwards of 100 million people in the United States live in housing that is physically inadequate, unsafe, overcrowded, or unaffordable.

The contributors to A Right to Housing consider the key issues related to America's housing crisis, including income inequality and insecurity, segregation and discrimination, the rights of the elderly, as well as legislative and judicial responses to homelessness. The book offers a detailed examination of how access to adequate housing is directly related to economic security.

With essays by leading activists and scholars, this book presents a powerful and compelling analysis of the persistent inability of the U.S. to meet many of its citizens' housing needs, and a comprehensive proposal for progressive change.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Why a Right to Housing Is Needed and Makes Sense: Editors’ Introduction
• 1 The Economic Environment of Housing: Income Inequality and Insecurity
• 2 Housing Affordability: One-Third of a Nation Shelter-Poor
• 3 Segregation and Discrimination in Housing
• 4 Pernicious Problems of Housing Finance
• 5 Federal Housing Subsidies:Who Benefits and Why?
• 6 The Permanent Housing Crisis: The Failures of Conservatism and the Limitations of Liberalism
• 7 Federally-Assisted Housing in Conflict: Privatization or Preservation?
• Privatizing Rural Rental Housing
• 8 The Case for a Right to Housing
• 9 The Role of the Courts and a Right to Housing
• 10 Housing Organizing for the Long Haul: Building on Experience
• 11 Social Ownership
• 12 Social Financing
• 13 The Elderly and a Right to Housing
• 14 Opening Doors:What a Right to Housing Means for Women
• 15 Responses to Homelessness: Past Policies, Future Directions, and a Right to Housing
• 16 Community Development Corporations: Challenges in Supporting a Right to Housing
• Old and New Challenges Facing Rural Housing Nonprofits
• 17 Between Devolution and the Deep Blue Sea: What’s a City or State to Do?
• 18 Housing and Economic Security
• About the Contributors
• Index