Housing in the United States
[1] Housing in the United States is heavily commodified, and when viewed as an economic sector, contributes to 15% of the gross domestic product.
[2] The amount of public housing is capped via the Faircloth Limit, and when available can only be offered to households meeting certain eligibility requirements.
A home's location, style and access to schools, parks, and other amenities can align a household to a greater community to reinforce cultural or religious bonds.
[4] Housing is also important to developers, builders, lenders, realtors, investors, architects, and other specialized professions and trades.
By the 1970s, the United States was being deindustrialized, and regional economies began to diverge: previously manufacturing-focused cities in the Rust Belt and elsewhere experienced population decline, and housing costs rose drastically in urban regions such as New York, San Francisco and Boston.
[21] Although a nationwide problem, the undersupply of housing is caused in large part by local community actions that discourage new development.
[21][22][23] These include regulations such as single-family zoning, minimum parking requirements, and height restriction laws that limit the density of new residences within a municipality or increase the expense and difficulty of construction.
New construction often requires a public comment process, which arose in response to the excesses of urban renewal in the 1960s.
"[23]: 97 These meetings are often seen as a manifestation of nimbyism, in which existing residents, especially those who own property, leverage regulations and procedures in order to stymie new construction.
The 1949 Act also required that targets of slum clearance (by then called "urban renewal") be given preference in public housing projects, further concentrating poverty.
[24] Private subsidy was coupled with an underinvestment in public housing, and large projects such as Cabrini–Green in Chicago and Pruitt–Igoe in St. Louis became notorious for their squalor.
[29] As of 2018[update], the Department of Housing and Urban Development reported there were roughly 553,000 homeless people in the United States on a given night,[30] or 0.17% of the population.
