Overview

The Social Housing Development Authority (SHDA) is a proposed new federal institution to address the wave of distressed real estate as a result of the pandemic. The Authority would 1) acquire distressed real estate, 2) rehabilitate the property to livability and environmental standards, and 3) transfer the property to the “social housing” sector (community land trusts, tenant cooperatives, mission-driven nonprofits, public housing, and others). In doing so, this entity would forestall the scavenging of communities by vulture investors like private equity – hard lessons we learned from the post-2008 housing crisis.

Our op-ed on the proposal in the New York Times can be found here, and a detailed version of can be found here.

This proposal is co-authored with Gianpaolo Baiocchi, and developed with Marnie Brady, Sara Duvisac, and Ned Crowley, with help from the Urban Democracy Lab.

Coverage

Print media

• Letter to Majority Leader Schumer, 1/26/2021
• “A Wealthy Nation of the Homeless: The United States’ Eviction Crisis”, OECD Forum
• “Biden Wants to Unite the Country. How Can He Do It?”, Politico
• “NY renters face pandemic evictions ahead of Christmas, even with moratorium. What to know.”, LoHud.com
• “Homes Guarantee Campaign Demands Housing for All”, The Progressive

Talks

• “Futures of Social Housing,” UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy
• “Housing Security in a Time of Crisis: The Case for a Social Housing Development Authority,” NYU - Institute for Public Knowledge