Shelter Burden: Local Politics and Progressive Housing Policy

Abstract

The Reagan-Bush era oversaw a dramatic reduction in federal aid to low-income housing. Edward Goetz closely examines how state and local governments have filled the resulting political and administrative vacuum. He argues that the new housing policy that has emerged at the local level in the United States is qualitatively different from that which characterized the federal era. Basing his work on original surveys of cities, states, and statewide housing advocacy groups, Goetz comprehensively documents the wealth of housing policy innovation at the local level and challenges the conventional wisdom about conservative trends below the federal level. Shelter Burden describes and analyzes the current policy paradigm, placing it in the context of a progressive political movement that goes beyond the arena of housing and has had impact nationwide at the local level. That paradigm is a progressive policy agenda that emphasizes non-market mechanisms, nonprofit actors, greater regulation of the private sector, reversal of downtown gentrification, and increased use of local resources for low-income housing. In his discussion, Goetz focuses on the local housing movement and offers a case study of the politics of housing in Los Angeles. Unlike most other books on U.S. housing policy, Shelter Burden does not offer a prospective housing policy agenda. Instead, the author describes how programs such as housing linkage fit into the new politics of housing and are adopted in U.S. cities and states. By analyzing the adoption of redistributive housing policy, Goetz tests the prevailing theory regarding redistributive policymaking at the local level in the United States.

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