America Needs More Housing, But Not More Public Housing
Instead of building more units, governments should focus on making construction easier for the private sector.
Queensbridge Houses, the largest public housing development in North America, circa 1938.
Photographer: George Enell/Archive PhotosProgressives have a big new old idea to address soaring rents, and it can be summarized in three words: more public housing. I agree with two-thirds of this agenda — America certainly needs more housing. I have a problem with the “public” part.
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Bernie Sanders have been pushing for renewed federal investment in public housing and to repeal the Faircloth Amendment, which prevents cities from using federal housing dollars on the construction of new publicly owned units. The research director of the Urban Institute’s Land Use Lab is advising policymakers to “reconsider an obvious but long-taboo solution: building new public housing.”