Urban Housing and the Emergence of the Public-Private Partnership in American Social Policy

Abstract:     
This paper traces the political history of the United States Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968, an act that profoundly altered the direction of American housing policy by shifting production and management of low-income dwellings decisively away from government and toward the use of private for-profit companies. The law culminated the efforts of the most politically liberal of presidents, Lyndon Johnson, to introduce into American social policy the concept of the 'public-private partnership,' which was later adopted by conservative politicians such as Ronald Reagan. Examining the key events and interested parties - including the trade association of the nation’s home builders - the paper shows that a convergence of ideological, historical, institutional, political, and ultimately individual factors in 1967 and 1968 created the federal housing policies based on public-private partnerships.

Keywords: housing, social policy, public-private partnership, lobbying

JEL Classification: H53, L33, R31

working papers series