88. Brad Lander - 2023 Annual Conference: Why is Housing so Unaffordable? Causes and Solutions

Today our discussion comes from our most recent annual conference: Why is Housing so Unaffordable? Causes and Solutions. For the next twelve weeks, our discussions will revolve around the topic of housing and house prices with three subtopics. The first will be root causes, followed by an evaluation of current policy responses, and finishes with alternatives to current policy and thinking around affordability. For today’s program, we were lucky enough to talk to Brad Lander. Brad is the Comptroller of New York City, where he is in charge of making the best investments possible toward a more sustainable and resilient New York. As we’ve heard over the past two weeks, housing and affordability problems are quite complex, and the situation has generally become messy. Public policy and government are one part of this institutional entanglement. Calibrating our tools and conducting the correct evaluation is important to creating sustainable development.  Mr. Lander is a former community organizer and non-profit leader. He began his career at Fifth Avenue Committee, a non-profit that builds and developed affordable housing. After 2009, he became the Director of the Pratt Center for Community Development, an institute in Brooklyn New York, where he focussed on developing communities sustainably and affordably.  Mr. Lander has been a harsh critic of the New York City tax system and, coming from a non-profit, has different ideas for how to fix it. As comptroller, Brad has tried to amend the system in order to create more resilient communities.  Together we discussed how the current system of unaffordable housing was created, how taxes can improve or worsen the situation, and what his office will be working towards for the remainder of his term. To check out more of our content, including our research and policy tools, visit our website: https://www.hgsss.org/