SPAAR Book Club Read: The Affordable City

The United States faces a housing crisis. Nationwide, including both Minneapolis and Saint Paul, cities are struggling to address rapidly increasing housing costs and household instability.

Debates over possible solutions divide into two camps: increasing supply by building more housing or enacting stronger tenant protections. Are these solutions mutually exclusive?

This is what SPAAR members will discuss during the upcoming Book Club as the book The Affordable City is read.

In The Affordable City, author Shane Phillips discusses his belief that effectively tackling the housing crisis requires both tenant protections and housing abundance. He offers readers more than 50 policy recommendations, beginning with a set of principles and general recommendations that should apply to all housing policy. The remaining recommendations are organized by what he calls the Three S’s; Supply, Stability and Subsidy. Phillips shares the reason each is essential and provides recommendations for making them work together.

About the author: Shane Phillips is the Housing Initiative Project Manager at the UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies.

Schedule -  Each session below will be held via ZOOM from 8-9am

• Thursday March 31 @ 8am: Introducing the book and Book Club participants
• Thursday April 7 @ 8am: Chapters 1-7 46 pages
• Thursday April 14 @ 8am: Chapters 8-22 46 pages
• Thursday April 21 @ 8am: Chapters 23-33 41 pages
• Thursday April 28 @ 8am: Chapters 34-46 44 pages
• Thursday May 5 @ 8am: Chapter 47-Conclusion 42 pages