The Political Basis of American Housing Policy: Heterogenous Preferences over Housing Policy within the Congress and American Political Institutions

Seito Hayasaki, Keio University

Researchers of housing have pointed out that housing is “the wobbly pillar under the welfare state.” This phrase is well suited to describe the state of housing in America. With a relatively high ownership rate as well as a very small size of public housing, American housing policy has resulted in creating a number of Americans who have to spend a large proportion of their income on their rents or become homeless. Although the government has had numerous attempts to provide affordable housing for the economically vulnerable through public-private partnerships and tax incentives, the amount of public housing is still limited. Instead of providing an adequate amount of public housing for low-income people, the government has long made efforts to create schemes to encourage homeownership through tax expenditure and expanding secondary mortgage markets. However, this encouragement of homeownership has faced a significant backlash due to the burst of subprime mortgage market that led to the global financial crisis. This paper tries to seek political determinants of the American housing policy featured by its reliance on indirect government interventions to housing market as well as the encouragement of homeownership society. Analyzing the political process of major housing legislations in the postwar era, this paper will present how heterogenous preferences over housing policy among legislators interacted with American political institutions and led to such policy outcomes.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 179. Housing Policy in the Late 20th Century