Transcript Shared regional fate

To understand the pattern of government
decision and actions to solve public
problems, we need to understand:
• How does a community determine something
is a problem that affects a public interest?
• How is the public interest (re)defined
(aggregated, deliberated, or prescribed) in
this process?
• What is good public policy?
We need to understand how a relationship
is drawn between
• a community,
• a problematic situation,
• an interest that deserves public attention,
and,
• a sense of the need to act and the possibility
that action can be effective.
Framing public policy problems
Sense of a political community or public
can be based on:
• shared history and institutions that provide a
common framework for resolving disputes
and a common status as citizens
• shared values and identity: groups
• shared fate: interdependent interests
Fishbanks
• shared commitments to justice, democracy . . .
This demands public attention because it
harms this interest in a way that:
• Violates legitimate commitments
• Undercuts our common status as citizens
• Violates the shared values that my/our
community is based on
• Affects welfare in a way that can only be
addressed through collective action
• You would not accept if you were in
my/our/their position
• Is not fair, just, or in the interest of all
How is this accomplished?
• “Normative-prescriptive story”
• Tells a story that says what the problem is
and what should be done about it.
• Distinguishes what should pay attention to
and what is noise.
• Ties facts and values together.
• Draws on established “truths.”
• Fits with “ideas in good currency.”
An example: Rachel Bratt – “The real
story on housing” Boston Globe 9/16/02
• “Decent, affordable housing must be
available to all. This simple truth-this single
housing story-needs to be recognized,
embraced, and acted upon.”
What’s the problem?
• Market failure makes deserving families
dependent on erratic public support to obtain
a good essential to their welfare.
• Understanding and support is undercut by
distortion in the media.
• The disadvantaged suffer.
• The “viability” of the community is placed at
risk as successful families leave.
Why should we care?
What public interest is at stake?
•
•
•
•
The people affected are deserving.
The good in question has a special status.
Those who suffer, did not cause the problem.
Collective (political) action is the only way to
address the problem.
• The long-term welfare of the community is at
risk.
• How would you feel if you were in this
situation?
But what can we do?
• Insulate funding from politics: The National
Housing Trust Fund a “more reliable,
apolitical basis than through the current
appropriations process.” (Bratt, 2002)
• Generate political support
• Use funds wisely: “new construction,
rehabilitation of existing subsidized and
unsubsidized units, and safeguard existing
subsidized housing for future generations of
low-income residents.” (Bratt, 2002)
But what can we do?
• Set the record straight: media’s role
• Reform the process: Appoint a commission to
“either modify the current 40B statute or come
up with a new solution.” (Bratt, 2002)
• Tie housing to other goals: “self sufficiency”
among homeless and welfare recipients;
retain “middle income wage earners, who are
so critical to the health and viability of our
economy.” (Bratt, 2002)
“The Congress declares that the general welfare and
security of the Nation and the health and living
standards of its people require housing production and
related community development sufficiently to remedy
the serious housing shortage, the elimination of
substandard and other inadequate housing through the
clearance of slums and blighted areas, and the
realization as soon as feasible of the goal of a decent
home and a suitable living environment for every
American family, thus contributing to the development
and redevelopment of communities and to the
advancement of the growth, wealth, and security of the
Nation.” U.S. Housing Act of 1949
Prosperity is to blame
• “The United States is the best housed it has
ever been in its history . . . [but] clearly we
have a serious affordability issues for some
people which has been exacerbated by this
prosperity.” N. Retsinas, Joint Center for Housing Studies,
Harvard University, in Tanner (2003) p.84
• “In the midst of this remarkable prosperity, the
homeownership gap between whites and
minorities has hardly narrowed.” Joint Center for
Housing, State of the Nation’s Housing, 2000 in Tanner (2003) p. 85
Prosperity is to blame
• “Gentrification has added to the affordability
problem . . . As wealthier buyers have
snapped up modestly priced homes in older
neighborhoods . . . They have taken
moderately priced housing out of the trickle
down supply.” Tanner (2003) p. 85
• “You can go around the country and find
gentrification of downtowns, and now it has
gone into the suburbs. People are getting
forced out.” (Robert Sheehan, housing
economist, in Tanner (2003) p. 85)
Shared regional fate
• “It goes beyond the lowest income
groups to the people who could afford
more [upscale] housing but must move
farther and farther from their jobs to get
what they want” (Robert Sheehan, housing economist,
in Tanner (2003) p. 81)
• ‘A public school teacher was among
those heading off to work at a Bronx
family shelter. “I’m just letting you know
how discouraged I am. At 8:21 a.m., I
have to be fresh for 61 New York City
Shared regional fate
• As more and more communities realize that
affordable housing is where jobs critical to
their local economies go to sleep at night, we
will begin to see the kinds of more broadly
based coalitions of public and private
stakeholders that will be required to deal with
the problem.” Michael A. Stegman, Director
Center for Community Capitalism, in Tanner
(2003) p.88
Shared regional fate
• With rents up so high, we are concerned that
churches are seeing their members driven
away and on profits and small businesses
being forced out of the area.” Laura
Stuchinsky, Silicon Valley Manufacturers
Group, in Tanner (2003) p.97
Shared regional fate
• “From a NIMBY standpoint, it is easier to find
support for homeownership than rentals.
Some people think rentals aren’t like us,
especially those getting assistance.” Conrad
Eagan, Executive Director, Millennial Housing Commission, in Tanner
(2003) p. 88
• ‘Some companies have begun sending out
daily shuttle buses to pull in workings from
outlying areas. ‘ “We see that as a decent
adaptation. It doesn’t sound ideal, but it
doesn’t mean it will continue forever.” Howard
Husock, Kennedy School of Government, in
Tanner (2003) p.83
What crisis?
• “Seattle has gone through boom and bust
before . . . I can remember a time when you
couldn’t give away housing in Seattle, but
now it’s experience an unbelievable crunch.
“ Barry Zigas, Senior VP, Fannie Mae, in
Tanner (2003) p.82
• “People see an opportunity, and you get
construction. Gradually the market catches
up to demand.” John Weicher, Hudson
Institute, in Tanner (2003) p. 83
What crisis?
• “If you have two incomes at not much
more than minimum wage, there’s a
good chance that you could afford a
decent house . . . Can you find a place
to live? I think the answer is largely,
yes. Is it in the best school district/ No,
but that a school problem. Is it close to
work? No, but that’s a transportation
problem.” Howard Husock, Kennedy School of
Government, in
What crisis?
• There is no affordability crisis “if households
have the opportunity to spend a small faction
of their incomes on housing, but instead
choose to spend a larger fraction.” Richard Green
and Stephen Malpezzi, Univ. of Wisconsin, in Tanner (2003) p. 83
Other issues
• The power of agenda setting
• What roles does information play?
• Why is it difficult to get or sustain
commitments on housing?
• Which comes first, problems or solutions?
• What counter tactics are proposals for action
open to?
“Reactionary Rhetorics”
(Albert Hirschman, 1991)
• “Jeopardy, futility, perversity”
• “The more money you pour into the economy,
the more prices rise. If you are going to give
that worker a raise and there’s no more
productivity, you are going to have inflation.
That would push housing costs out of reach if
it were done on a large scale.” (Robert Sheehan,
housing economist, Catholics for Housing, in Tanner (2003) p. 85)
• Bibliography:
• Tanner, Jane (2003): “Affordable Housing” in Issues for Debate
in American Public Policy (Washington, DC; CQ Press) pp. 8189