Generation Priced Out - by Randy Shaw (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Generation Priced Out is a call for action on one of the most talked about issues of our time: how skyrocketing rents and home values are pricing out the working and middle-class from urban America. Telling the stories of tenants, developers, politicians, homeowner groups, and housing activists from over a dozen cities impacted by the national housing crisis, Generation Priced Out criticizes cities for advancing policies that increase economic and racial inequality. Shaw also exposes how boomer homeowners restrict millennials' access to housing in big cities, a generational divide that increasingly dominates city politics. Defying conventional wisdom, Shaw demonstrates that rising urban unaffordability and neighborhood gentrification are not inevitable. He offers proven measures for cities to preserve and expand their working- and middle-class populations and achieve more equitable and inclusive outcomes. Generation Priced Out is a must-read for anyone concerned about the future of urban America"--Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

Generation Priced Out is a call to action on one of the most talked-about issues of our time: how skyrocketing rents and home values are pricing the working and middle classes out of urban America. Randy Shaw tells the powerful stories of tenants, politicians, homeowner groups, developers, and activists in over a dozen cities impacted by the national housing crisis. From San Francisco to New York, Seattle to Denver, and Los Angeles to Austin, Generation Priced Out challenges progressive cities to reverse rising economic and racial inequality.

Shaw exposes how boomer homeowners restrict millennials' access to housing in big cities, a generational divide that increasingly dominates city politics. Shaw also demonstrates that neighborhood gentrification is not inevitable and presents proven measures for cities to preserve and expand their working- and middle-class populations and achieve more equitable and inclusive outcomes. Generation Priced Out is a must-read for anyone concerned about the future of urban America.

From the Back Cover

"Randy Shaw is a rare combination: an astute housing policy analyst sitting inside the body of a passionate service provider who is also a clear, engaging, and focused writer. Generation Priced Out is a very important book that everyone concerned about housing affordability should read."--Michael C. Lens, Associate Professor of Urban Planning and Public Policy, UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs

"An inspiration for everyone concerned with the future of urban America."--Peter Dreier, E. P. Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics and Chair of the Urban and Environmental Policy Department, Occidental College

"Generation Priced Out shows how African Americans, Latinos, and other tenants of color are battling displacement and gentrification. I urge everyone who is concerned about crafting local strategies to read Randy Shaw's passionate book."--Donna Mossman, Founding Member, Crown Heights Tenant Union

"Working people across America increasingly spend hours commuting to jobs in cities where they can no longer afford to live. Shaw shows how people are mobilizing to reverse this trend and describes how urban areas can and must stop the pricing out of the working and middle class."--Deepak Bhargava, President, Center for Community Change

"Shaw provides concrete strategies for how this generational divide over housing can--and must--be overcome."--Kim-Mai Cutler, Operating Partner, Initialized Capital, and former contributor, TechCrunch

Review Quotes

"Full of informative history on urban housing policy, plus useful political advice from a longtime foe of landlords and developers in the much-contested and increasingly unaffordable terrain of San Francisco. Generation Priced Out: Who Gets to Live in The New Urban America also provides detailed community organizing case studies that show how we can keep urban neighborhoods from becoming further devoid of racial, class, and ethnic diversity due to market-driven gentrification. Shaw's marching orders are simple and sensible. . . . As tenant struggles become a bigger focus of activist recruitment and training throughout the country, Shaw's book will be in much demand as an essential organizing guide for people, of all generations, 'priced out' of affordable housing."-- "CounterPunch"

"In Generation Priced Out, San Francisco tenant activist Randy Shaw paints a picture of a nation beginning to wake up to its housing crisis, but unsure of what to do about it."-- "City Lab"

"Written in a lucid and engaging style, the book draws on extensive first-hand experience of tenant organising, activism, and policy-writing as well as interviews with a real who's-who of housing activists in several high-cost US cities not only to make the case for urban policy to take housing affordability seriously, but also to outline concrete steps to get there."-- "Intergenerational Justice Review"

"'Generation Priced Out' boldly challenges the progressive community to rethink how to achieve greater economic and racial diversity by providing more affordable housing. . . . Shaw's book adds a thoughtful voice to the national discussion in addressing such questions."-- "Seattle Times" (11/26/2018 12:00:00 AM)

"What I liked most about this breezy, easy-to-read book is that it rebuts a wide variety of anti-housing arguments."-- "Market Urbanism" (11/20/2018 12:00:00 AM)

Recommended Reading, "101 Books About Where and How We Live" "This city-by-city examination of the nation's spreading affordability problem shows how long commutes, housing instability, and decentralized communities have become national issues."-- "Curbed" (11/19/2018 12:00:00 AM)

About the Author

Randy Shaw is Director of the Tenderloin Housing Clinic, San Francisco's leading provider of housing for homeless single adults. His previous books include The Activist's Handbook: Winning Social Change in the 21st Century; Beyond the Fields: Cesar Chavez, the UFW, and the Struggle for Justice in the 21st Century; and The Tenderloin: Sex, Crime, and Resistance in the Heart of San Francisco.