Social Housing

3 credits · Graduate

The term “social housing” has been employed in many contexts throughout the world to describe housing approaches that attempt to insulate housing from market forces. In many countries this entails substantial public investment and intervention in the housing sector. While the U.S. has historically placed a greater emphasis on leveraging markets to supply affordable housing, different forms of social housing have long existed in the U.S. and are gaining more traction throughout the country. This course reviews these different approaches to social housing and housing decommodification. It examines the broader set of political, economic, and social forces that enable and constrain these approaches, as well as the outcomes they produce.