Since its initial publication, The Federal Government and Urban Housing has become a standard reference on the history of housing policy in the United States. It remains a unique contribution, going beyond simply describing current housing policy to situate it firmly within a broader political context. Specifically, the book examines American housing policy in the context of the ideological crosscurrents that have shaped virtually all areas of domestic policy. In this newly revised and expanded third edition, R. Allen Hays has comprehensively updated the original material and added chapters covering the important developments in housing policy that have taken place since the publication of the second edition in 1995. Spanning more than eighty years, from the Great Depression to the first two years of the Obama administration, the book argues that while our nation's policy makers have learned a great deal about how to create and implement successful housing programs, the United States, as a country, has yet to summon the political will to address the urgent housing needs of its many citizens who are unable to afford decent housing on their own.

A comprehensive history of U.S. housing policy that illuminates the political struggles that have accompanied the nation’s effort to assist those citizens who are in desperate need of decent, affordable housing.

The Federal Government and Urban Housing provides a comprehensive overview of federal housing and community development policy during the last fifty years, with special emphasis on the crucial decade of the 1970s. It relates housing policy developments to broad ideological and political changes that have taken place in the U. S. during this period. R. Allen Hays covers virtually every major program that has attempted to provide housing for disadvantaged persons, including public housing, Section 235, Section 8, and housing rehabilitation. He compares the underlying approaches to housing embodied in these programs, and examines the impact of urban renewal and Community Development Block Grants on urban housing. The successes and failures of federal housing programs are considered within a detailed historical context. The book concludes with a look at housing policy under the Ronald Reagan Administration and a discussion of the future of housing policy.

This book provides a complete picture of federal housing and community development policy during the last sixty years. Since the first edition was published in 1985, the quality and quantity of published works on U.S. housing policy have increased considerably. But this book still stands out from other works in the breadth of its coverage and analysis. This second edition covers virtually every major program that has attempted to provide housing for disadvantaged persons and compares and contrasts their underlying approaches to housing problems. It also examines the impact of major community development programs--urban renewal and Community Development Block Grants--on urban housing. The coverage of U.S. housing policy extends through the first year of the Clinton administration. Most notably, Hays calls into question the generally negative appraisal of housing programs that is widespread in the public policy and urban politics literature. He shows that although most of these programs have experienced major problems, none has been an unqualified failure, and most have improved the housing conditions of millions of people. Placing the federal government's attempts to deal with housing problems within a broader analytical framework by relating them to long and short-term political changes, Hays argues that the political variable with the most impact on the course of housing policy has been ideology--in particular, the ideological orientations of the various presidential administrations during the past sixty years.

The most widely used and most widely referenced "basic book" on Housing Policy in the United States has now been substantially revised to examine the turmoil resulting from the collapse of the housing market in 2007 and the related financial crisis. The text covers the impact of the crisis in depth, including policy changes put in place and proposed by the Obama administration. This new edition also includes the latest data on housing trends and program budgets, and an expanded discussion of homelessnessof homelessness.

This book provides a complete picture of federal housing and community development policy during the last sixty years. Since the first edition was published in 1985, the quality and quantity of published works on U.S. housing policy have increased considerably. But this book still stands out from other works in the breadth of its coverage and analysis. This second edition covers virtually every major program that has attempted to provide housing for disadvantaged persons and compares and contrasts their underlying approaches to housing problems. It also examines the impact of major community development programs—urban renewal and Community Development Block Grants—on urban housing. The coverage of U.S. housing policy extends through the first year of the Clinton administration. Most notably, Hays calls into question the generally negative appraisal of housing programs that is widespread in the public policy and urban politics literature. He shows that although most of these programs have experienced major problems, none has been an unqualified failure, and most have improved the housing conditions of millions of people. Placing the federal government's attempts to deal with housing problems within a broader analytical framework by relating them to long and short-term political changes, Hays argues that the political variable with the most impact on the course of housing policy has been ideology—in particular, the ideological orientations of the various presidential administrations during the past sixty years.

A comprehensive history of U.S. housing policy that illuminates the political struggles that have accompanied the nations effort to assist those citizens who are in desperate need of decent, affordable housing.