Public housing is an essential part of the solution to the housing crisis in the US, California politician Alex Lee tells Dezeen in this interview conducted as part of our Social Housing Revival series.
California State Assembly member Lee is one of a small number of voices leading calls for a new social-housing programme to alleviate America’s severe housing-affordability problems.
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“I think, broadly speaking, the world is suffering a crisis of affordable housing,” Lee told Dezeen.
“California is probably the epicentre of the American housing crisis that is sweeping the entire nation – but uniquely in America and in California we lack one of the very specific tools to address a housing crisis,” he said.
“That is through social housing, through a public developer, through government intervention and creating more affordable housing options.”
Lee, a Democrat whose district covers the Bay Area cities of Milpitas and Fremont, wants to see California copy governments in Europe and Asia in directly funding the development of below-market housing at scale.
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“What we’re really talking about is public sector-led development that is housing for everyone,” he said.
“It remains one of these very pivotal strategies where we can really leverage our state resources to directly house a lot of people, but yet we still do not have that right now,” he added.
“So that’s why I think it’s our missing tool in the toolbox to solve our housing crisis.”
