In Defense of Housing: The Politics of Crisis

In every major city in the world there is a housing crisis. How did this happen and what can we do about it?

Everyone needs and deserves housing. But today our homes are being transformed into commodities, making the inequalities of the city ever more acute. Profit has become more important than social need. The poor are forced to pay more for worse housing. Communities are faced with the violence of displacement and gentrification. And the benefits of decent housing are only available for those who can afford it.

In Defense of Housing is the definitive statement on this crisis from leading urban planner Peter Marcuse and sociologist David Madden. They look at the causes and consequences of the housing problem and detail the need for progressive alternatives. The housing crisis cannot be solved by minor policy shifts, they argue. Rather, the housing crisis has deep political and economic roots—and therefore requires a radical response.

• How to Kill a City: Gentrification, Inequality, and the Fight for the Neighborhood
• Housing Policy in the United States
• Capital City: Gentrification and the Real Estate State
• Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City
• Purging the Poorest: Public Housing and the Design Politics of Twice-Cleared Communities (Historical Studies of Urban America)
• High-Risers: Cabrini-Green and the Fate of American Public Housing
• The Autonomous City: A History of Urban Squatting
• The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America
• How to Kill a City: Gentrification, Inequality, and the Fight for the Neighborhood
• The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America