America's trillion-dollar housing mistake

"In America's Trillion-Dollar Housing Mistake, Mr. Husock lays out his case for opposing subsidized housing. He contends that our housing program failures are not due to minor flaws that can be easily corrected with new and improved management or new and improved subsidies." "In confronting America's housing problems, Mr. Husock points to the deep but often unappreciated importance of economically diverse urban neighborhoods, and the need to offer privately built "affordable" housing in the historic tradition of the brownstones of Brooklyn, the bungalows of Oakland, and, today, houses built through Habitat for Humanity. He calls for time limits on housing assistance to ensure that government-funded housing provides a springboard to self-sufficiency rather than a complacent lifestyle. "Our task now," he writes, "is to dismantle public housing in a gradual, sensitive, and humane way.""--Jacket.