A comprehensive history of U.S. housing policy that illuminates the political struggles that have accompanied the nation’s effort to assist those citizens who are in desperate need of decent, affordable housing.
Since its initial publication, The Federal Government and Urban Housing has become a standard reference on the history of housing policy in the United States. It remains a unique contribution, going beyond simply describing current housing policy to situate it firmly within a broader political context. Specifically, the book examines American housing policy in the context of the ideological crosscurrents that have shaped virtually all areas of domestic policy.
In this newly revised and expanded third edition, R. Allen Hays has comprehensively updated the original material and added chapters covering the important developments in housing policy that have taken place since the publication of the second edition in 1995. Spanning more than eighty years, from the Great Depression to the first two years of the Obama administration, the book argues that while our nation’s policy makers have learned a great deal about how to create and implement successful housing programs, the United States, as a country, has yet to summon the political will to address the urgent housing needs of its many citizens who are unable to afford decent housing on their own.
R. Allen Hays is Director of the Graduate Program in Public Policy and Professor of Political Science at the University of Northern Iowa. He is the author of Who Speaks for the Poor? and editor of Ownership, Control, and the Future of Housing Policy.
