It’s Time to Re-Brand the “Housing Crisis”Randy Shawbyline‚ Nov. 18‚ 2008From the 1970’s through much of the Clinton years, affordable housing advocates made little progress maintaining the federal government’s 1949 commitment to provide safe and affordable housing “for all Americans.” But starting in the late 1990’s, activists made gains by reframing the “housing crisis” from a problem identified with the very poor, to one that also impacted “working families.” In the go-go days of the real estate bubble, this re-branding won the broadest political support for affordable housing had seen since the 1960’s. But then came the foreclosure crisis and credit crunch. This component of the “housing crisis” became front-page news and a constant topic on the campaign trail, while homelessness, and the millions of families living in unaffordable and/or unhealthy rental housing, was ignored. When middle-class people are being threatened with the loss of their homes, the problems of low-income renters are put on the back-burner. This helps explain the surprising defeat of an affordable housing set-aside initiative (Prop B) in progressive San Francisco, and demonstrates why housing activists must re-brand the affordable rental housing crisis to get traction in the current climate. |