Decommodifying Housing
Social Housing
A series of works examining the past and present movements/efforts for alternative housing models, often called “social housing.” This housing is “decommodified”, meaning to “reduce the extent to which the private market determines the price of housing and access to it.”
The Social Housing Development Authority
This has been a project to present an institutional design for a government agency that can expand the supply of social housing, done in collaboration with Gianpaolo Baiocchi. Our initial 2020 white paper was then developed into the Homes Act of 2024 (introduced by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Tina Smith).
“Decommodifying Housing: The Social Housing Development Authority.” (with Gianpaolo Baiocchi). 2025. Edited by Raquel Rolnick, Marnie Brady, and Tom Malleson. (This essay will be the “anchor essay” of the next volume of the Real Utopias book series).
“Our Housing System isn’t Working – We Need a Public Option” (with Gianpaolo Baiocchi). 2024. The Hill.
“Learning from Barcelona: The Importance of Public Acquisition as a Transition Strategy.” (with Gianpaolo Baiocchi) 2023. in Housing Barcelona, pp. 139-141. Barcelona: Ajuntament de Barcelona (trans. Spanish and Catalan).
“A Crisis Too Big to Waste: What Comes after Private Housing?” (with Gianpaolo Baiocchi). The Long Year: A 2020 Reader. Edited by Thomas J. Sugrue and Caitlin Zaloom. New York: Columbia University Press.
“How to Fix Housing for Everyone Except Corporate Speculators.” (with Gianpaolo Baiocchi) 2021. New York Times. 4 March.
“The Case for a Social Housing Development Authority” (with Gianpaolo Baiocchi). November 2020.
Building coalitions for social policy
In this series of works, we think through how social policy can be passed and kept, given the diverse constituencies who might benefit from it and their interests.
“Who Will Decommodify Housing? Race, Property, Class and the Struggle for Social Housing in the United States.” (with Gianpaolo Baiocchi). 2024. Engaging Wright: Between Class Analysis and Real Utopias. Edited by Michael Burawoy and Gay Seidman. New York: Verso.