Scholars, advocates, and architects assess America’s affordable housing crisis and suggest various strategies to rectify it, including numerous images of important, recently built houses and complexes.

On any given night, more than 650,000 people in the United States—many with families and full-time jobs—experience homelessness. The shortfall in affordable housing is estimated to be 5 million units or more. Devastating effects of these conditions include an increase in multigenerational poverty, a decrease in economic mobility, and—since the housing crisis has a disproportionate impact on communities of color—a heightening of racial injustice.

Just as there was no single cause of the crisis, there is no single cure. Assembled here are essays by economists, scholars, architects, planners, and community organizers to address diverse aspects of the subject. The book discusses the history and extent of the US housing crisis; permanent affordable housing and affordable housing as a component of market-rate residential buildings; the development of community associations that can build and manage local units; links between housing production and climate change; and the pervasive and long-term consequences of racial discrimination in the housing market. Recent buildings by Studio Gang, Koning Eizenberg Architecture, and others illustrate affordable housing at its best, offering a glimpse of possible solutions.

Included are essays by Dean Baker, Richard Florida, Robert Kuttner, Michael Gecan, Rosanne Haggerty, J. Phillip Thompson, Margery Perlmutter, David Dante Troutt, Justin Steil, Christopher Hawthorne, David Burney, Jon McMillan, Viren Brahmbhatt, Richard Plunz, Kenneth Frampton, Mark Ginsberg, Fernando Pagés Ruiz, Jessica Holmes, Rusty Smith, Andrés Duany, Alan Organschi, Andrew Ruff, and Elizabeth Gray.

This book is Flexibound.Housing the Nation brings together a diverse variety of professionals to create a unique and valuable guide to making vital progress on the affordable housing crisis, including proposing and evaluating innovative solutions that can move the debate forward and make real progress on an issue so central to a vibrant economy and equitable society. 
—Chuck Schumer, U.S. Senator 
 
Housing the Nation is an exceptionally important book at this moment when the crisis in affordable housing appears to be overwhelming and insoluble.
Effectively organized and presented, a carefully curated selection of essays examines the complex root causes of the crisis as well as current barriers to funding and building affordable housing.
Identifying the complex set of interconnected roles and resources, this collection provides a solid foundation for crafting effective solutions.
Housing the Nation will become an essential resource for all stakeholders committed to addressing this critical issue.
—Amanda M. Burden, principal, Bloomberg Associates; former New York City planning commissioner 2002–2013; FAICP
 
All those interested in the deep economic, political, legal, and racial roots of today’s housing crisis should read this book.
—Darren Walker, president, Ford Foundation
 
Our housing problem is a crisis of policy, a crisis of design, a crisis of money, and a crisis of ethics—maybe a crisis of ethics most of all—and Housing the Nation is the best overview we have of how it came to be, and what we can do about it. At once a polemic, a backgrounder, and a portfolio, it is both hopeful and realistic.
—Paul Goldberger, author, Why Architecture Matters
 
An essential read, in a time of rising income inequality and homelessness, Housing the Nation describes the United States’ affordable housing issues, and provides beautiful examples of equitable solutions. Ranging from inspirational calls for action to deep dives into issues and solutions, Housing the Nation integrates many voices into a comprehensive whole.
—Jonathan F. P. Rose, president, Jonathan Rose Companies; author, The Well-Tempered City

“Housing The Nation will force anyone who cares deeply about relieving suffering and correcting historic injustices to pick a side in the fight to provide high quality, safe, affordable housing for those who have been left behind and left out. The focus on delivering practical solutions authored by people who have spent decades in the trenches of our nation’s housing crisis makes this collection of essays a must-read.”  —Kirk Goodrich, president Monadnock Development, co-host “The Housing Problem” podcast and past chairman of the New York State Association for Affordable Housing (NYSAFAH)
 
 
“In a single volume, Gorlin and Newhouse document and analyze one of the most profound challenges of our time: safely and affordably housing every single person in this country. Through the lens of some of our greatest minds on the topic, this book transcends genre, combining voices and weaving together the case to make home and community places of pride, power, and belonging for all. Taken together, these voices and visuals showcase how affordable homes can be functional, resilient, equitable, and—an extraordinary can’t-miss text for our times.” —Shaun Donovan, CEO and president, Enterprise Community Partners; former secretary of housing and urban developmentAlexander Gorlin is an architect, scholar, critic, and a leader in the design of affordable housing. Alexander Gorlin Architects are the recipients of the 2023 Best Downstate Residence of the Year award from the New York State Association for Affordable Housing (NYSAFAH).

Victoria Newhouse is author of Rizzoli’s Parks of the 21st Century: Reinvented Landscapes, Reclaimed Territories.CN