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Trying to Understand Low-income Housing Subsidies: Lessons from the United States

Department of City and Regional Planning, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA, grigsby{at}pobox.uperen.edu

Steven C. Bourassa

School of Urban and Public Affairs, University of Louisville, 426 W Bloom Street, Louisville, KY 40208, USA, steven.bourassa{at}louisville.edu

This article asks why nations subsidise their low-income housing sectors and offers five reasons: to improve public health; to reduce societal injustice; to preserve the social order; to increase equality of opportunity; and, to accommodate population growth. After discussing those reasons in some detail, they are used as a framework for exploring some salient questions about low-income housing policy in the US. It is suggested that the framework would also be useful for analysis of low-income housing policies in other countries. It is concluded that the largest low-income housing subsidy programme in the US—the Section 8 voucher programme-is inapt.

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