Includes bibliographical references.

The big picture. Income inequality and affordable housing / Dean Baker -- America's expanding housing crisis / Richard Florida -- The case for permanent social housing / Robert Kuttner -- Affordable housing: forgotten factors / Michael Gecan -- The housing system and homelessness / Rosanne Haggerty -- Racial injustice and housing. Race, housing, and democracy / J. Phillip Thompson -- How land-use policies discriminate against people and neighborhoods / Margery Perlmutter -- Racial bargaining for housing in Newark / David Dante Troutt -- Climate disasters and environmental justice / Justin Steil -- Points of view. The view from city hall: architecture, planning, and the housing crisis in Los Angeles / Christopher Hawthorne -- What happened to NYCHA and how can we fix it? / David Burney -- Affordable housing: view from a for-profit developer / Jon McMillan -- Bookending affordability: notes on New York City housing / Viren Brahmbhatt and Richard Plunz -- The death and life of Marcus Garvey Village: a case study / Kenneth Frampton and Mark Ginsberg -- In search of solutions. Wheel estate / Andrés Duany and Fernando Pagés Ruiz -- Rural housing: learning by doing / Jessica Holmes and Rusty Smith -- What we must afford (some thoughts on system change in global housing) / Alan Organschi, Andrew Ruff, and Elizabeth Gray -- Portfolio. Projects by Alexander Gorlin Architects, Bernheimer Architecture, Body Lawson Associates. Brooks+Scarpa, DPZ CoDesign, Koning Eizenberg Architecture, Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects, Michael Hsu Office of Architecture, Michael Maltzan Architecture, Paulett Taggart Architects: Paulett Taggart Architects with Studio Vara, Christine Pierron and Mark Weinke, Rural Studio, Studio Gang, Studio Twenty Seven Architecture and Leo A. Daly.

"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"-- Provided by publisher.