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Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer

Scaling Affordability and Breaking the Stigma: Local Innovations in Public Housing (with Rachel Cohen)

Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer

Civic Ventures

Business, Government, News, Politics

4.81.5K Ratings

🗓️ 26 November 2024

⏱️ 46 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week, Nick and Goldy discuss the concept of social housing with Vox Policy Correspondent Rachel Cohen. They explore how local government investments in mixed-income housing can keep cities affordable for the middle class. Drawing from her reporting, Cohen spotlights the innovative social housing experiment in Montgomery County, Maryland, which demonstrates how well-designed public housing can rival private market options without falling prey to stigma or inefficiency. They also explore the financial benefits of publicly owned housing and its potential to alleviate the widespread housing crisis by providing a sustainable, scalable solution that benefits low- and middle-income earners by delivering lasting affordability. Rachel Cohen is a policy correspondent for Vox Media. She focuses on U.S. social policy, covering issues such as education, abortion, economic policy, and housing. Rachel has been covering social policy issues for more than a decade, with her reporting published in more than two dozen national outlets, including the New York Times, the Atlantic, Bloomberg, the Daily Beast, and the Washington Post. Social Media: @rmc031 @rachelmcohen.bsky.social Further reading:  What if public housing were for everyone? One possible housing crisis solution? A new kind of public housing for all income levels An Innovative Financing Model for Affordable Housing Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics Threads: pitchforkeconomics Bluesky: @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social Twitter: @PitchforkEcon, @NickHanauer, @civicaction YouTube: @pitchforkeconomics LinkedIn: Pitchfork Economics Substack: The Pitch

Transcript

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0:00.0

The rising inequality and growing political instability that we see today are the direct result of decades of bad economic theory.

0:10.3

It's time to build our economy from the bottom up and from the middle out, not the top down.

0:15.8

Middle out economics is the answer. Because Wall Street didn't build this country. Great middle class built this country.

0:22.6

The more the middle class thrives, the better the economy is for everyone, even rich people like me.

0:34.4

This is Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer, a podcast about how to build the economy from the middle out.

0:42.4

Welcome to the show.

0:50.0

Goldie, today we're going to talk about one of our favorite subjects.

0:53.3

And, you know, when you're right, you're right, the world is definitely catching up to an idea that we've been kicking around for a long time, which is this idea of social housing, the idea of using government dollars, not necessarily tax dollars, but borrowed government money to develop workforce

1:13.4

housing in cities and use the public's power of the purse effectively to build housing at scale

1:22.1

and to keep the price of it at affordable rates.

1:25.5

When you say workforce housing, what we mean is housing affordable to the middle class.

1:30.5

Yes, correct.

1:31.6

To ordinary working people.

1:34.0

Humans.

1:34.4

People who aren't poor, people who aren't rich.

1:38.1

Rich like you.

1:39.6

Just people in the middle, you know, earning somewhere in that 80 to 120% of area median

1:47.5

income, the middle, middle class, which nothing is built for them.

1:53.4

That's right.

1:54.3

Nothing.

1:55.0

I mean, there's some subsidies for very low income housing.

1:59.0

There's a shit ton of expensive housing being built, but why would

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