Writing Sample – Week 5
The U.S. housing market has a troubled history, particularly regarding classist tendencies that adversely affect low-income communities. Private developers and their allies, including policymakers and politicians, control the real estate market and often create policies that primarily benefit themselves. The result is that low-income communities frequently experience disinvestment and require more quality resources to become safe and welcoming places.
Susanne Schindler and Chris Moyer’s reading on the 50-year history of U.S. housing policies is fascinating. The authors focus on the moratorium on federal funding for low-income housing and the introduction of Section 8 vouchers, which have benefited low-income communities. While former President Reagan’s disinvestment of federal funding to low-income housing harmed those dependent on these subsidies, he later introduced the low-income Tax Credit Program. However, these policies only worked for some people who depended on them, highlighting how policymakers and political leaders sometimes seem disconnected from the wants of the people they represent.
Today, government agencies manage most of New York City’s rent-subsidized housing, including the New York City Housing Preservation and Development. This agency was part of Mayor DeBlasio’s affordable housing initiative, launched in 2014, which aimed to build 200,000 affordable homes over ten years in all five boroughs while retaining diversity throughout the neighborhoods. Recently, the HPD announced it had completed its initial goal two years before schedule. However, DeBlasio had contradictory policies regarding affordable housing, as he also attempted to sell low-income housing to private developers.
Private developers now have a growing interest in public housing, adding to the challenges low-income and minority communities face in finding housing. Most private developers are interested in long-term investments rather than swift rentals or sales, further supporting the idea that a housing shortage is mostly fiction, with the notion of gaining more neoliberalist policies.
Samuel Stein’s reading on high-rise private communities introduces the term “zombie urbanism.” These condos in ultra-thin buildings are notoriously under-occupied, with de facto density significantly below designed capacity, exhibiting an eerily low level of vitality concerning their scale. While they neither add to valuable stock nor absorb demand from owners without other places to live, they serve their purpose of not needing to be occupied and not needing to be alive, which is all relative depending on your interests.
The problem with the real estate industry is not the people who can afford luxury properties but the policies that allow them to happen. The real estate industry needs new policies and ways of thinking for all players, as it resembles an out-of-control speed train that cannot stop. The industry’s only interest is to continue moving forward as fast and as long as possible, which is unnecessary and unsustainable.
In conclusion, the U.S. housing market has a history of classist tendencies that primarily benefit private developers and their allies, leaving low-income communities to experience disinvestment and a lack of quality resources. Although there have been attempts to create policies to benefit low-income communities, they have yet to be effective. Policymakers and political leaders often seem disconnected from the people they represent. The real estate industry needs new policies and thinking methods for all players to create a sustainable and equitable housing market.
