America's Trillion-Dollar Housing Mistake: The Failure of American Housing Policy [Hardcover]

Howard Husock (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 23, 2003

For more than seven decades, the American government has acted to provide housing for the poor. In America's Trillion-Dollar Housing Mistake, Howard Husock explains how, as with so many anti-poverty efforts, low-income housing programs have harmed those they were meant to help while causing grave collateral damage to cities and their citizens. Public housing projects, Mr. Husock writes, are only the best-known housing policy mistakes. His book explains how a long list of lesser-known efforts—including housing vouchers, community development corporations, the low-income housing tax credit, and the Community Reinvestment Act—are just as pernicious, working in concert to undermine sound neighborhoods and perpetuate a dependent underclass. He exposes the false premises underlying publicly subsidized housing, above all the belief that the private housing market inevitably fails the poor. Exploring the link between private housing markets and individual self-improvement, he shows how new and expensive public efforts are merely old wine in new bottles. Instead he argues for the deep but unappreciated importance to American society of economically diverse urban neighborhoods, and he demonstrates the historic and continuing importance of privately built "affordable" housing, from the brownstones of Brooklyn to the bungalows of Oakland and, in the present day, houses built through Habitat for Humanity. Bearing witness in the tradition of Jane Jacobs, Mr. Husock describes and laments the deadening effects of public and subsidized housing on the economies and vitality of American cities.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A provocative but wise and convincing book. (Stuart Butler )

Provocative critiques...maybe this time Congress will finally listen. (Ron Utt )

This brief book is a gem...an incisive and devastating analysis.... A must-read. (Stephan Thernstrom )

Has been popular with [Presidential] administration officials. (David W. Chen New York Times )

Howard Hussock...has made an important contribution to public policy and to American Government in general. (Governing Magazine )

About the Author

Howard Husock is director of public policy case studies at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. He is a contributing editor of City Journal, the magazine of urban affairs published by the Manhattan Institute, from which the essays in this book are drawn. Mr. Husock lives in Brookline, Massachusetts.

Howard Husock is director of public policy case studies at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. He is a contributing editor of City Journal, the magazine of urban affairs published by the Manhattan Institute, from which the essays in this book are drawn. Mr. Husock lives in Brookline, Massachusetts.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Ivan R Dee (September 23, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566635314
• ISBN-13: 978-1566635318
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #844,998 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good points, May 28, 2009

By 

Vanessa Allmon "life-long learner" (Chicago, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: America's Trillion-Dollar Housing Mistake: The Failure of American Housing Policy (Hardcover)

Tough but good arguments. If you are a pro low-income housing advocate do not pass up an opportunity to read this book. Admittedly told from a conservative's (ideological) perspective, this book presents many ideals advanced by former Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) Chairman Vince Lane, who was once on the Clinton administration's short list for HUD Secretary, as well as former(CHA) public housing residents.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well laid out, informative, and a surprisingly quick read., February 17, 2008

By 

cartervoter (Long Island, NY USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: America's Trillion-Dollar Housing Mistake: The Failure of American Housing Policy (Hardcover)

I recommend this book to all political science majors.

It is a clear-eyed analysis of the mistakes made by well-intentioned people who failed dismally to perceive the differences between their dream worlds and the world which is inhabited by real human beings.

In the book, Husock also analyzes alternative approaches such as providing housing vouchers.

I have also read Husock's essay, "Mayor must reconsider 'affordable'," which was published in the Boston Globe January 2006, while Husock was adjunct lecturer at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.

And I have read his 2007 Wall Street Journal commentary "What's Lost in the Move - Helping our newest neighbors acclimate," which was written after he became vice president of the Manhattan Institute.

I look forward to reading more work by Husock.

9 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars On 2004 Planetizon Top 10 list for Urban Planning Books, March 18, 2005

By 

Robin Henschel - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: America's Trillion-Dollar Housing Mistake: The Failure of American Housing Policy (Hardcover)

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2004 PLANetizen Top 10 Book List
The following list of top 10 books published in 2003 was compiled by the PLANetizen editorial staff based on a number of criteria, including editorial reviews, sales rankings, popularity, PLANetizen reader nominations, number of references, recommendations from experts and the book's potential impact on the urban planning, development and design professions.

Below are summaries for each selected title, in alphabetical order. Books published after December 2003 were not considered for this list.

America's Trillion Dollar Housing Mistake
The Birth of City Planning in the United States: 1840-1917
Building Suburbia: Green Fields and Urban Growth 1820-2000
City: Urbanism and Its End
Gaining Ground: A History of Landmaking in Boston
Global City Blues
Halfway to Everywhere: A Portrait of America's First-Tier Suburbs
House by House, Block by Block: The Rebirth of America's Urban Neighborhoods
Mega-Projects: The Changing Politics of Urban Public Investment
Modern Architecture and Other Essays

America's Trillion Dollar Housing Mistake: The Failure of American Housing Policy
by Howard Husock (Ivan R. Dee, Inc., November 2003)

Housing policy in the U.S. is an issue within the urban planning, development and design professions (and beyond) that is as tough, as it is sensitive, as it is variegated, as it is unresolved. And arguably many of us, united in acknowledging some of its past mistakes, are divided by its future course. America's Trillion Dollar Housing Mistake is a collection of essays written from 1995-2003 on everything that Howard Husock, director of public policy case studies at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, thinks is wrong with U.S. housing policy. It is an unforgiving look at the history of 'failed' housing programs in the U.S., with such provocative chapter titles as "Don't Let CDC's Fool You" and "We Don't Need Subsidized Housing." Husock dedicates nearly all of his book to trying to discredit policies such as the Community Reinvestment Act, the Low Income Housing Tax Credit, Section 8, public housing in its many forms, and subsidized non-profit housing development. He also offers some solutions, including a "compassionate conservative housing policy," which would gradually dismantle public housing and subsidy programs. He also highlights what he thinks are successful models, such as time-limited public housing in Charlotte, NC, and Habitat for Humanity.

The experience of reading Howard Husock's essays is interactive. Along the way, you may find yourself yelling out counter-arguments, or giving Husock a mental high-five. And depending on which chapter it is and what your position is on solving the seemingly insurmountable housing problems in this country, you may even find that you do both. Whether you agree with Howard Husock or not, America's Trillion Dollar Housing Mistake keeps you on your toes and holds you accountable for your opinions, whatever they may be, on housing policy in the U.S.

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