The Affordable City

May 22, 2024

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The Affordable City: Strategies for Putting Housing Within Reach.

From Los Angeles to Boston and Chicago to Miami, US cities are struggling to address the twin crises of high housing costs and household instability. Debates over the appropriate course of action have been defined by two poles: building more housing or enacting stronger tenant protections. These options are often treated as mutually exclusive, with support for one implying opposition to the other.

Shane Phillips believes that effectively tackling the housing crisis requires that cities support both tenant protections and housing abundance. In his book, The Affordable City, he offers a number of policy recommendations, many of which are organized by what he calls the Three S’s of Supply, Stability, and Subsidy. Phillips makes a moral and economic case for why each is essential.

About the author

Shane Phillips is a researcher, public speaker, and consultant on housing affordability. He manages the Randall Lewis Housing Initiative at the UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies co-hosts the UCLA Housing Voice Podcast, a biweekly show that translates emerging research for a non-academic audiences.

Originally hailing from Seattle, Shane earned his bachelor's degree in biochemistry from the University of Washington and masters degrees in public administration and urban planning from USC. Prior to his role at UCLA, Shane was most recently director of public policy for the Central City Association of Los Angeles, and before that director of Los Angeles Streetcar, Inc.

Want to read the book?

Order the book at Copperfield's Books or on the Island Press website.