Housing America ─ Issues and Debates

Housing remains among the United States’ most enduring social problems. Housing availability, affordability, policy, and financing are persistently difficult problems to address from generation to generation because they are so deeply embedded within the nation’s political, economic, and social conditions and contradictions. These issues came glaringly into public view during the U.S. financial crisis 2007-2009 and are still having a major impact on the lives of millions of American citizens. Yet there are very few, if any, readable and teachable materials that clearly present the range of key housing issues in a form accessible for reasoned debate and discussion. Hence the rationale for this short text which can easily supplement many other texts on policy and can inject lively debate and discussion in any course on the subject.

Emily Tumpson Molina's research interests lie in urban studies, housing, race and racism, social problems and policy, and quantitative and geographic methods. Her most recent work examines racial and geographic inequalities in the impacts of the foreclosure crisis on neighborhoods in the Los Angeles region as well as housing as an ongoing social problem in the United States. At Brooklyn College, she teaches courses in urban sociology, quantitative methods and social problems. Her courses facilitate students' engagement with New York's rich local data and case studies.