cross-subsidy approaches, an attempt to shift the cost burden
from government to the private sector by compelling the haves to
underwrite the have-nots. As this publication later describes, the
most common types of cross-subsidy devices are housing trust funds
and inclusionary zoning. Through one formula or another, private
developers who seek a building permit or zoning variance must,
under certain circumstances, make a specified cash contribution to
a housing fund or else themselves undertake to supply directly a
specified number of low- or moderate-income housing units.
The nonprofit
and quasi-private sectors have also responded. More
foundations—private, community, and corporate—are
involved in housing than in the past. Joining both them and
government are fresh allies from the private sector in various
roles, including that of concessional investors. Even the added
philanthropic and quasi-philanthropic resources are orders of
magnitude smaller than government resources, however. They enhance
the pool of housing capital more by strategic pinpointing than by
quantity. Banks, corporations, and foundations have become
increasingly knowledgeable in multiplying the value of both market
and public capital by applying their slender resources to achieve
optimal configurations.
The foregoing
overview of a century of housing serves as a background for the
sections that follow. The remainder of the paper sets forth the
facts and figures that depict the housing problems of disadvantaged
families. It also reprises the Foundation's past activities and
suggests a range of specific initiatives to be explored in the
future. The programmatic discussion concentrates on the problems of
the poor and near-poor, with added emphasis on the deprivations of
the new homeless, especially those who have fallen into that
misfortune from society's mainstream.
Acknowledging
that the housing of the poor will remain a Foundation priority, the
paper also signals our intent to keep the Foundation's
public-policy window open to issues that affect the housing status
of all levels of society. As the foregoing overview indicates,
America's housing sector has to be seen as a whole, since all
housing markets—poor, near-poor and non-poor—are
subject to common economic forces and interconnect through the
market process. Housing issues must be grasped within the framework
of broader social trends and national policies.