Why affordable housing is scarce in progressive cities

November 16, 2018                      By: Patrick Sisson

Plenty of factors can explain the crisis of housing affordability plaguing U.S. cities—a shortage of new construction, a lack of tenant protection, greedy developers and speculators, or a lack of upzoning. But according to San Francisco-based housing activist Randy Shaw, author of Generation Priced Out: Who Gets to Live in the New Urban America, one of the true challenges is the entrenched power and privilege of an older generation of homeowners.

San Francisco, California | Shutterstock

“No progressive city posts “Priced Out: Only the Affluent Allowed” signs in it neighborhoods,” he writes in the book’s introduction.“But that’s what’s happened.”

Shaw, who runs the Tenderloin Housing Clinic in San Francisco, has a first-hand understanding of the causes of today’s crisis, having witnessed his city’s transformation over the last few decades into a poster child for extreme housing costs. He also knows many of the traditional solutions, having pushed for the tenant protections that make San Francisco a progressive beacon for renter’s rights.....................Read More