Neighborhood Defenders
Participatory Politics and America's Housing Crisis

Public participation in the housing permitting process empowers unrepresentative and privileged groups who participate in local politics to restrict the supply of housing.

Katherine Levine Einstein (Author), David M. Glick (Author), Maxwell Palmer (Author)

9781108708517, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 5 December 2019

228 pages, 29 b/w illus. 21 tables
15 x 23 x 1.5 cm, 0.36 kg

'Neighborhood Defenders is a book of nuances, to be read with your thinking cap on and your mind open to new insights. It shows that, while participation can be a powerful source of inequality, NIMBYISM is only one slice of the whole reality of housing politics.' Clarence Stone, George Washington University

Since the collapse of the housing market in 2008, demand for housing has consistently outpaced supply in many US communities. The failure to construct sufficient housing - especially affordable housing - in desirable communities and neighborhoods comes with significant social, economic, and environmental costs. This book examines how local participatory land use institutions amplify the power of entrenched interests and privileged homeowners. The book draws on sweeping data to examine the dominance of land use politics by 'neighborhood defenders' - individuals who oppose new housing projects far more strongly than their broader communities and who are likely to be privileged on a variety of dimensions. Neighborhood defenders participate disproportionately and take advantage of land use regulations to restrict the construction of multifamily housing. The result is diminished housing stock and higher housing costs, with participatory institutions perversely reproducing inequality.

1. Introduction
2. Neighborhood defenders and the power of delay
3. Land use regulations and multifamily housing development
4. Land use regulations and public input
5. Who are the neighborhood defenders?
6. Neighborhood defense tactics
7. Gentrification, affordable housing, and housing reform
Appendices
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Urban & municipal planning [RPC], Housing law [LNSH9], Politics & government [JP], Sociology [JHB], Urban communities [JFSG]