Who Decides? Systemic Barriers to Affordable Housing

AUTHOR: Christopher Truksa
FACULTY: Dr. Kerry Hunter
DEPARTMENT: Political Economy

ABSTRACT

Almost half of all Americans pay more than 30% of their income towards housing. Further, no state has an adequate supply of affordable rental housing. Attempts to address the effects of the housing crisis, like providing rental assistance and tax breaks for people paying mortgages. These solutions are necessary to help people in the short term. However, they fail to address the root of housing problems. By taking a critical analysis of the current housing crisis, I argue that the barriers to affordable housing lie beyond what decisions are being made. Rather, the way decisions are made about housing is the key problem. At the national level, the lack of democratic influence has led to the rise of corporate landlords which has led to increasingly unaffordable rents. At the local level, too much democratic power allows neighborhood activists who easily prevent affordable housing developments. My analysis suggests that long-term success in providing affordable housing will require restructuring the way that decisions are made regarding housing because the current structure promotes and empowers incentives that prevent affordable housing. Though I do explore some possible solutions, like creating a national constituency to guide national housing policy goals and changing zoning meetings to be state-level decisions. I do not attempt to solve the issues I identify in this paper. Rather, the conclusions I draw are necessary to understand the systems at work that prevent affordable housing.