Social Housing For All: A Vision For Thriving Communities, Renter Power, and Racial Justice

To create a more equitable housing system, we must massively expand social housing: a public option for housing that is permanently affordable, protected from the private market, and publicly owned or under democratic community control.

All levels of government must create public, non- profit means of housing finance, construction, management, and ownership to counter real estate speculation—rather than using our public funds to enrich for-profit speculators, private developers, and corporate landlords. Government policy should develop and maintain social housing by employing organized labor and creating union jobs. And we must ensure that systems of democratic accountability center low-income communities of color, renters, and the most marginalized residents in decision-making and control over resources.

The implementation of social housing must redress inequity and exclusion; only through accountability to marginalized communities will social housing programs truly serve their interests.

This report is also available in Spanish • Este informe también se encuentra disponible en español.

Acknowledgements

Published by the Center for Popular Democracy and Renters Rising. This report was written and researched by Amee Chew (Center for Popular Democracy). Abby Ang provided research support, and it was reviewed by Katie Goldstein, Emily Gordon, and Jeanette Martin (Center for Popular Democracy). We are deeply grateful to members of our advisory council for their guidance, expertise, and suggestions throughout this project: