Why are cities facing a housing affordability crisis?

This episode discusses the housing crisis that cities around the world are facing, and explores the public policy solutions needed to address it. Urban areas are shouldering much of the burden associated with global population growth, including with respect to affordable housing supply. Given this growth is expected to continue, affordable housing policy is likely to be one of the most salient public policy pressures facing governments around the world for some time. 

Our hosts, Melissa Lockett and Alec Greven, are joined in this episode by four experts who share their perspectives on how we ended up in this crisis and what we can do about it. Daniel Pryor and Julieta Perucca outline ideological frameworks for the affordability crisis and why our current system has been unable to supply low-cost housing. Daniel is the head of policy research at The Adam Smith Institute, an independent, economic policy think-tank based in the UK. Julieta is the Former Chief of Staff to the UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing and the current Deputy Director for THE SHIFT, an organization stewarding the global movement to secure the human right to adequate housing.

Jonathan Cortell and Oliver Harman delve into practical approaches for supplying housing in both high-income and low-income areas. Jonathan is a Managing Director at L&M Development Partners, a real estate development firm in the U.S., overseeing mixed-use developments. Oliver is a Cities Economist for the International Growth Centre and a scholar of sustainable housing policy in low-income developing countries.

This episode is hosted by Melissa Lockett and Alec Greven; produced by Livey Beha and Read Leask; and researched by Claddagh Nic Lochlainn, Livey Beha, and Nikunj Arwal. To keep up with the latest on our episodes, follow us on Twitter @oxfordpolicypod and on Instagram @oxfordpolicypod_.