The Office of Policy Development and Research at the Department of Housing and Urban Development has issued HUD at 50: Creating Pathways to Opportunity. It is a massive tome, with a lot of interest in it for the housing geeks among us. In the Preface, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy Development Lynn Ross writes,
This volume looks back on HUD’s history and looks forward to ways the agency might evolve. If you are familiar with the mission and the work of PD&R, you will not be surprised to learn that this book includes thorough analyses of not only how programs succeeded, but also how they sometimes fell short and what was done in response. I hope you will take the time to engage with the analysis and ideas contained throughout this volume. We’ve organized this book so you can read the thematic chapters in any order—although you can certainly read it cover to cover.
Given that HUD at 50 is more than 250 pages long, only the most dedicated among us will do so. Nonetheless, it is worth skimming the table of contents to see if any of the entries are worth reading in full:
- Introduction by Julián Castro
- Chapter 1 The Founding and Evolution of HUD: 50 Years, 1965–2015 by Jill Khadduri
- Chapter 2 Race, Poverty, and Federal Rental Housing Policy by Ingrid Gould Ellen and Jessica Yager
- Chapter 3 Urban Development and Place by Raphael W. Bostic
- Chapter 4 Housing Finance in Retrospect by Susan Wachter and Arthur Acolin
- Chapter 5 Poverty and Vulnerable Populations by Margery Austin Turner, Mary K. Cunningham, and Susan J. Popkin
- Chapter 6 Housing Policy and Demographic Change by Erika Poethig, Pamela Blumenthal, and Rolf Pendall
- Conclusion Places as Platforms for Opportunity: Where We Are and Where We Should Go by Katherine M. O’Regan
I will take a closer look at some of these chapters in the coming days, but feel free to dip in before I do!
