Not in Our Backyard: Plans, Planners, Regulators and the New Redlining (Viewpoint Essay‪)‬

WHILE SPECIFIC AND OPERATIONAL PROPOSALS BEYOND HUD's Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) have yet to emerge, the federal government's commitment to maintain housing values in the context of rapidly declining residential demand prompts this discussion of the potential consequences--and missed opportunities. Viscerally appealing, the NSP and similarly sympathetic strategies designed to support home values do not reconcile with other policy goals intended to make housing more affordable to larger numbers of families. By intervention, the failures of the market are not given a chance to correct themselves, leaving the impression that higher values are obviously the preferred public policy. Absent price supports provided through federal action, it should follow that a larger inventory of affordable housing units would become available. Thus, the apparent losses experienced in market values become societal gains as housing opportunities are broadened.