housing

Interviews

“Every Eviction is an Act of Violence”

Tara Raghuveer & Joshua Akers - 23 March 2021

Josh Akers interviews researcher, organizer, and activist Tara Raghuveer about her work with KC Tenants in Kansas...

Interviews

Fighting for Housing Justice: An Interview with Two Youth Organizers in Curtis Bay, Baltimore

Nicole Fabricant & Carlos Sanchez & Terriq Thompson - 16 March 2021

Two Baltimore youth organizers discuss the importance of community land trusts, for housing and beyond. ----...

Series

Contemporary Housing Struggles: Crises, Activism, and Critical Research

Joshua Akers - 12 March 2021

In this series, Metropolitics focuses on the intersection of organizing, technology, politics, and policy in urban...

From the Field

The Financialization of Rent-Regulated Housing in New York City after Rent Reform

Benjamin F. Teresa - 4 December 2020

In New York City, rent-controlled housing stock has been progressively deregulated over the last three decades, to...

From the Field

The Contestations and Contradictions of the New York City Housing Authority’s Plan for Mixed-Income Redevelopment

Valerie E. Stahl - 10 November 2020

The New York City Housing Authority, faced with a capital shortfall of nearly $40 billion, is pursuing a series of...

Essays

The House is Ours: How Moms 4 Housing Challenged the Private-Property Paradigm

Lauren Everett - 6 October 2020

In the midst of a global housing affordability crisis that has been heightened by the Covid‑19 pandemic, it is time...

From the Field

Social Housing in Postcolonial Contexts

Clémence Léobal & translated by Oliver Waine - 25 September 2020

What happens when national social-housing policies developed in mainland France are transposed in overseas...

Essays

Shelters for Profit, Not People: The Rise of Tax-Credit Investment in US Cities

Renee Tapp - 22 September 2020

Tax-credit investment in US cities provides tax havens for investors, and squanders taxpayer resources on market-rate...

Debates

Covid-19, War, and Working-Class Neighborhoods

Pierre Gilbert & translated by Oliver Waine - 5 June 2020

The residents of France’s working-class neighborhoods, accused of exacerbating the coronavirus pandemic through their...

Essays

Educating Tenants: A Historic Remit of Social Housing

Danièle Voldman & translated by Oliver Waine - 17 April 2020

In France, the professions of social worker and concierge both emerged in the early 20th century, and both responded...

Essays

When Measurement Matters: Displacement, Gentrification, Residential Mobility

H. Jacob Carlson - 14 April 2020

Scholarly studies of displacement resulting from gentrification are inconsistent in what they measure, and omit...

Debates

What Does a Just Housing Plan Look Like? NYC and National Housing Movements Show the Way

Oksana Mironova & Sylvia Morse - 22 October 2019

How could we develop a housing plan that is not rooted in capitalism? Oksana Mironova and Sylvia Morse describe how...

From the Field

Community Movements and Housing Liberalism: Reflections on the Bank of America Low‑Income Housing Competition

Avi Garelick - 15 October 2019

Avi Garelick describes how the imperative for realism in affordable housing production conflicts with the goals of a...

Reviews

Crisis Makes Heroes: Affordable Housing in New York City During and After a “Decade of Fire”

Susan Saegert - 2 July 2019

Susan Saegert discusses the memoirs of two hard-fighting Bronx housing advocates, active at a particularly turbulent...

Reviews

Whose Bronx?: Decade of Fire Looks Back at a Complicated History of Neighborhood Abandonment and the Rise of Community Control in the South Bronx

Aly Hassell - 2 July 2019

Decade of Fire, a new documentary film by lifelong South Bronx resident and first-time filmmaker Vivian Vázquez...

Interviews

Reinventing Segregation in Northern California: An Interview with Alex Schafran

Alex Schafran & Darian Razdar - 14 May 2019

Darian Razdar interviews Alex Schafran about his new book Road to Resegregation: Northern California and the Failure...

Debates

The Limits of the Accepted Orthodoxy on Rent Control

Loïc Bonneval & François Robert & translated by Oliver Waine - 22 March 2019

In response to a recent critique of their work, Loïc Bonneval and François Robert defend their method and results. In...

Debates

The Damage Inflicted by French Rent Controls between 1914 and 1948

Robert C. Ellickson & David Le Bris - 26 February 2019

In an essay in Metropolitics, Loïc Bonneval questioned the consensus among economists that strict rent controls have...

Debates

Does Rent Control Prevent Investment in Real Estate?

Loïc Bonneval & translated by Oliver Waine - 8 February 2019

While rent-control measures kept private rental housing in France affordable for much of the 20th century, it has...

Essays

Organizing Against Projet Gentrification: Housing Activism in a White-Supremacist Landscape in Montreal

Pierce Nettling - 27 November 2018

Housing activists in Montreal and Quebec have successfully sought to secure tenant rights and social housing for over...

From the Field

When Progressive Mayors Aren’t Enough: Homes for All and Trans-Local Social Movements

H. Jacob Carlson & Marnie Brady & Gianpaolo Baiocchi - 13 November 2018

Progressive governments are often pulled away from their campaign promises by local growth-coalition interests or for...

Debates

Deafening Discord: Reclaiming Residents’ Anger in Working-Class Neighborhoods

Pierre Chabard & translated by Oliver Waine - 26 October 2018

We recently published an article showing how, in Roubaix in northern France, elected officials took steps to “prevent...

From the Field

Killing Them Softly: The Environmental Vulnerability of Black Women in Albany, New York

Tanesha A. Thomas - 23 October 2018

In Albany’s South End, a predominantly low-income African-American neighborhood, tanks storing environmentally...

Debates

Silent Suppression: How Local Politicians Stifle Collective Action in Working-Class Neighborhoods

Julien Talpin & translated by Oliver Waine - 19 October 2018

Taking as its starting point a study of a neighborhood roundtable in the northern French city of Roubaix, this...

Reviews

Photographing the Slums of 1900s Berlin

Danièle Voldman & translated by Oliver Waine - 14 September 2018

At the turn of the 20th century, the dramatically poor conditions of urban working-class housing was a cause of major...

From the Field

The Cost of Affordability: Inclusionary Zoning and Displacement in East New York

James Shelton - 20 March 2018

What are the impacts of New York City’s Mandatory Inclusionary Housing program upon low-income communities of color?...

Debates

Storm Recovery: Local Efforts, Municipal Constraints, and New Ways Forward

Michael P. McCabe - 28 November 2017

Climate change-induced storm surges and rising sea levels will steadily cause more damage to homes in low-lying urban...

From the Field

Snowbirds’ Gift Economy in the Arizona Desert

David Frati - 7 November 2017

Each year, 200,000 retired people spend the winter in and around the small town of Quartzsite, Arizona, in the...

Essays

Urban Shrinkage in France: An Invisible Issue?

Rémi Dormois & Sylvie Fol & translated by Oliver Waine - 13 September 2017

Although the phenomenon of urban shrinkage affects a significant number of French towns and cities, it is an issue...

From the Field

The Actually Existing Markets of Shrinking Cities

Joshua Akers - 18 April 2017

In a bid to halt urban decline, Michigan’s state government sought to create incentives for the creation of urban...

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