In Generation Priced Out, activist Randy Shaw shows how policies have pushed up rent and excluded many long-time residents Plenty of factors can explain the crisis of housing affordability plaguing U.S. cities?a shortage of new construction, a lack of tenant protection, greedy developers and speculators, or a lack of upzoning. But according to San Francisco-based housing activist Randy Shaw, author of Generation Priced Out: Who Gets to Live in the New Urban America, one of the true challenges is the entrenched power and privilege of an older generation of homeowners.
?No progressive city posts ?Priced Out: Only the Affluent Allowed? signs in it neighborhoods,? he writes in the book?s introduction.?But that?s what?s happened.?
Shaw, who runs the Tenderloin Housing Clinic in San Francisco, has a first-hand understanding of the causes of today?s crisis, having witnessed his city?s transformation over the last few decades into a poster child for extreme housing costs. He also knows many of the traditional solutions, having pushed for the tenant protections that make San Francisco a progressive beacon for renter?s rights. But as he bounces from city to city in the book, showing how similar problems have manifested themselves in Austin, Los Angeles, Seattle, Denver, and elsewhere, it?s clear there?s a generational battle being fought. The entrenched power of homeowners to restrict the housing supply, even as the nation sees more expensive housing and increased wealth se...