Housing and Society: Interventions and Disruptions

Undergraduate / Graduate

This course builds on Housing, Inequality, and Society I to consider the United States' approach to housing and inequality with a particular focus on Federal programs. The course will consider how and when housing became a social problem that was deemed worthy of policy intervention at the Federal level. Students will become intimately familiar with the main Federal housing programs such as Public Housing, Housing Choice Vouchers, Project Based Section 8, the Home Mortgage Interest Deduction, and the Low Income Housing Tax Credit. The course will explicitly consider the degree to which housing policy has been shaped by prevailing racial hierarchies, Specifically, we will examine how the segregative ideals of both the North and South have limited the potential of housing policy to achieve justice. Recent attempts at representational and redistributive housing policy will be considered as students strive towards a detailed understanding of policy "as it is" as well as a vision of "what could be."