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Peter Marcuse and Critical Planning No. 182 ISSN 1559-9736 Winter 2010 The Magazine of Planners Network Peter Marcuse and Critical Planning Also In This Issue: New Strategies for Housing Rights www.plannersnetwork.org “In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions The Seventh on the next seven generations.” -From the Great Law of the G e n e r a t i o n Iroquois Confederacy From the Homeownership Trap to Alternative Forms of Tenure and Financing by Michela Zonta Open the newspaper on any day of the week segments of society could afford homeownership. and you will most likely come across a headline The collapse of the housing industry following the such as “U.S. Unemployment Rate at 26-Year Wall Street crash of October 1929 prompted the High,” “Hundreds of Workers Laid Off,” or “Area federal government to adopt a series of initiatives to Foreclosures Increase,” along with news about stimulate overall economic recovery by addressing business closures, bankrupt financial institutions and both unemployment and the shortage of affordable increasing rates of homelessness. housing. By sponsoring slum clearance and the construction of public housing in inner cities, the Such headlines and news are not very different federal government sought to boost employment in from those of the late 1920s. Indeed, the scale of the housing industry and provide affordable housing the current economic recession has often been for the poor. It also sought to ensure that more equated with that observed during the Great households could afford to own their own homes Depression. Ironically, the very institutions that through the establishment of low down payments, emerged as a response to the Great Depression reduced monthly payments and long-term mortgage have largely contributed to the recent housing loans, as well as with the creation of insurance crisis, along with the belief in homeownership as schemes designed to stabilize financial conditions for a potent symbol of the American Dream. And, yet homeowners and mortgage lenders. again, they have been at the core of a variety of policy responses. What we need instead today is Federal responses to the housing crisis of the late a progressive reexamination of homeownership 1920s are often associated with programs such and laissez-faire housing policies and practices as public housing, which were designed initially in favor of alternative forms of housing tenure for the “worthy poor,”—formerly middle-class and more aggressive techniques to preserve low- and working-class families in need of temporary income rental units. housing. Over the years, however, the direct provision of housing by the federal government Homeownership as National Policy turned into a means-tested solution for the poorest residents, which diminished both its public support At the core of the current crisis are a number of and its impact. It is the large, although less visible, institutions and mechanisms that emerged in set of federal programs supporting homeownership response to the Great Depression. Before the Great for white middle- and upper-income consumers Depression, the financing of home purchases that originated and crystallized in the wake of was very expensive and only the most affluent the Great Depression that has cont. on page 4 2 Progressive Planning Winter 2010 Issue Contents: From the Homeownership Trap to Alternative Forms of Tenure and Financing New Strategies for Housing Rights by Michela Zonta.........................................................................Page 2 Picture the Homeless Chases Chase by lynn lewiS................................................................................Page 18 Peter Marcuse and Critical Planning Alternatives to the Mortgage Trap: Household Savings and Peter Marcuse at 80: His Extraordinary Contributions to the Mutual Housing Association Progressive Planning by Michael e. Stone....................................................................Page 22 by clara iraZábal and SuSan FainStein..........................Page 6 Land Banks, Mortgage Revenue Bonds and Market What We Can Learn from Peter Marcuse: “Think Critically, Regulation: Three Tools for Communities Facing Foreclosures Act Critically!” by Jesse clark...............................................................................Page 26 by Jacqueline leavitt................................................................Page 9 Direct Action Against Foreclosure and Eviction: Lessons Changing Times, Changing Planning: from the Great Depression Critical Planning Today by daniel PearlStein.................................................................Page 29 by Peter MarcuSe.......................................................................Page 13 Feature Articles From Fragmentation to Empowerment in a São Paulo Favela by bruno Padilha.................................................................................Page 33 Remembering Jac Smit and Tom Reiner............................Page 37 New York for Sale: Community Planning Confronts Global Real Estate review by Pierre clavel.............................................................Page 38 How to Join, Purchase Back Issues, etc..............................Page 42 Correction: In the Fall 2009 issue we neglected to mention that a previous version of the article about the Right to the City Alliance by Jacqueline Leavitt, Tony Roshan Samara and Marnie Brady appeared in the Poverty & Race Research Action Council newsletter from September/October 2009. www.plannersnetwork.org Planners Network Progressive Planning is published PLANNERS NETWORK 106 West Sibley Hall quarterly by Planners Network, Inc., a STEERING COMMITTEE Cornell University non-profit corporation in the State of Tom Angotti, Carlos Balsas, Jocelyne Chait, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA New York. Lee Deuben, Ann Forsyth, Stacy Harwood, Ph: 607.254.8890 Marie Kennedy, Josh Lerner, Richard Fx: 612.626.0600 Copyright 2010 by Planners Network. Milgrom, Marla Nelson, Libby Porter, Norma Email: [email protected] Rantisi, Alex Schafran, Amy Siciliano Website: www.plannersnetwork.org Reprinting and distribution of portions of this magazine for non-commercial PLANNERS NETWORK EDITORS purposes are encouraged. Reprints ADVISORY COMMITTEE Tom Angotti, Jason Blackman, Pierre Clavel, for commercial purposes require Chester Hartman, Chair, Teresa Cordova, Michael Dudley, Ann Forsyth, Chester writtem permission from the publisher. Dana R. Driskell, Ann Forsyth, Marie Hartman, Kara Heffernan, Clara Irazábal, Progressive Planning is indexed in the Kennedy, Patricia Nolan, Arturo Sanchez, Marie Kennedy, Norma Rantisi, Amy Siciliano Alternative Press Index. Peg Seip, Ruth Yabes, Ayse Yonder LAYOUT GUIDELINES FOR AUTHORS Donovan Finn (magazine) Please see www.plannersnetwork.org Mandana Nouri-Nekoei (e-newsletter) no. 182 / WinTer 2010 3 had the most substantial and level low interest rates—property homeownership in American lasting impact on the housing values rapidly declined across society, it is no surprise that market. These programs and the nation, making refinancing of homeowners have received most institutions, along with an overall existing mortgages unaffordable of the attention of the media and ideology, developed in support of for many homeowners. At the policymakers in the wake of the homeownership played a key role same time, rising interest rates current housing finance collapse. in the economic recession of eight in the subprime mortgage Without a doubt, homeowners are decades later. market made many homeowners being hit hard by the foreclosure unable to meet their financial crisis, particularly those with By facilitating access to mortgage commitments, threatening the limited financial resources and lending, New Deal policies solvency of several financial poor credit who succumbed to the contributed to the illusion of institutions. Similar to the Great illusion of homeownership at the homeownership by creating Depression, the housing and hands of financial institutions and a dependence on credit. This financial collapse precipitated practices that targeted marginal illusion, coupled with an over- a severe credit crunch, a sharp borrowers and a society that reliance on the private market rise in home foreclosures, loss oversold its benefits. For many, to be the primary provider of of savings by many households, however, foreclosed properties have housing and the cultural and declining stock prices, a drop in suddenly changed from a symbol social significance attached to housing construction, the collapse of the American Dream and of single-family homeownership as of financial institutions and other economic, social and psychological a potent symbol of the American businesses and skyrocketing security to a true nightmare and Dream, are the key forces that unemployment rates. financial point of no return. led to the current housing crisis. And, similar to eighty years ago, Here We Go Back to the The Squeeze Is On the Renters these have also been the basis Homeownership Myth for the most popular responses Much less attention has been to the economic recession. During the first year of the devoted to those segments Since the Great Depression, Obama administration, of the population who do homeownership became the a number of policies and not explicitly conform to the goal of increasingly larger programs were devised in single-family homeownership segments of society, thanks to the order to boost the economy norm—renters. Renting has restructuring and deregulation of and address the devastating historically
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    ! ! ! ! ! ! WILL!‘THE!POOR!BE!WITH!YOU!ALWAYS’?:! TOWARDS!A!METHODOLOGICAL!APPROACH!OF!READING!THE!BIBLE!WITH!THE! POOR! ! ! REVEREND&ELIZABETH&ARMEN&THEOHARIS& & & & & & & & & & Dissertation&Committee:& Rev.&Dr.&Brigitte&Kahl& Rev.&Dr.&Hal&Taussig& Dr.&Richard&Horsley& Dr.&Aliou&Niang& & & & & & & & & SubmitteD&in&partial&fulfillment& of&the&requirements& for&the&degree&of& Doctor&of&Philosophy& at&Union&Theological& Seminary&in&the&City&of&New&York& May&2014& ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Copyright!©!2014!Elizabeth!Armen!Theoharis! All!rights!reserved! Acknowledgements. ! ! I!want!to!thank!the!many!people!who!have!contributed!to!this!dissertation!over!the! past!ten!years!and!the!work!on!which!this!dissertation!stands.!Thank!you!to!the! teachers!in!the!classrooms!and!streets!who!have!insisted!that!poverty!defiles!our! world!and!defies!our!God.!Thank!you!to!the!students!who!have!been!committed!to! learning!as!we!lead,!walking!as!we!talk,!educating!as!we!organize.!Thank!you!to!all! the!“Poverty!Scholars”!who!have!dedicated!their!time!and!talents!to!not!just! improving!their!lives!but!ending!poverty!for!all.!Thanks!especially!to!the!leaders!and! participants!in!Poverty!Initiative!activities,!including!the!Poverty!Scholars! Leadership!School,!Potter's!Field!Campaign!of!Picture!the!Homeless!and!Interfaith! Friends!of!Potter's!Field,!"Reading!the!Bible!with!the!Poor",!“The!Gospel!of! Matthew”,!and!“The!Gospel!of!Paul:!Poverty!and!Spirituality”!semesterMlong!classes,! Poverty!Initiative!immersion!courses,!Poverty!Scholars!Strategic!Dialogues,!Roman!
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