The Politics of a Housing Crisis

Abstract

Reductions In the private investment in housing caused by federal, state, and local policies are a principal cause of the housing crisis we face today. The lack of private investment in housing has been a major cause leading to the housing crisis and thus homelessness. If you want "Affordable housing" in other words, below cost housing, you must decide which of these items you are willing to give up. Impacts of Local Rent Regulations and the 401(k) Plan Then if those financial changes weren't enough, as the housing market became more constricted, local governments, responding to tenant complaints piled on with rent control and expensive rental housing regulations. So where did all those housing investment dollars go? The 401(k) plan, which was a part of the Revenue Act of 1978 and other Wall Street investment plans are siphoning off dollars that once went into housing. Fewer Black people own homes today than they did in 1970, two years after the Federal Fair Housing Act was passed into law! We should consider ways to incentivize private rental housing investment. We must decide is housing a right? If it is, then what exactly does one have a right to? Unlike food and health care,, the federal government does not consider housing an entitlement.