Social Housing: Lessons for the U.S. from Abroad

Social housing (such as public or shared-equity housing) is one important housing type that can help preserve or create housing affordability in the United States. Many other subsidized, affordable, housing types require paying high subsidies to private owners and can limit the stewardship and community created by residents. Other countries that have large and successful portfolios of social housing can provide some ideas for the U.S.

At a state or federal level, maintaining the status quo of defunding public housing loses both a critical way for low-income residents to stay stably housed and for communities to have a voice in shaping their housing. Social housing that is well designed, and maintained with strong community stewardship, would help preserve long-term affordability and community control. Presenters share ideas for cultivating community organizations that steward and champion their social housing, designing social housing to integrate climate resiliency without cutting corners, and involving more actors in social housing to remove its stigma. Individuals involved on the ground with social housing as well as those involved with policy making at the municipal, state, or federal levels can use these ideas.

NPC Peer Reviewers assigned this presentation a learning level of Intermediate. For more on learning-level descriptions, visit our General Information Page.