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作者

Eric David Peterson

来源

JOURNAL OF URBAN HISTORY,Vol.45,Issue6,P.1174–1192

语言

英文

关键字

subsidized housing, finance, Urban Development Corporation, municipal bonds, New York City, Nelson Rockefeller

作者单位

1University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA

摘要

Heralded as an innovative if short-lived builder of affordable housing, in 1975, the New York State Urban Development Corporation (UDC) defaulted on more than $2 billion in debt obligations and narrowly avoided bankruptcy. Offering the first detailed examination of its finances, this article argues the UDC was prescient of a new model for public-private housing finance that in the 1980s emerged in the ashes of conventional, state-financed public housing. In response to many of the long-standing challenges with government-produced housing, particularly inadequate funding, the UDC’s creation presaged the debt-driven model of development which would mature in the subsequent decades. While many scholars continue to reify criticism of government-created housing projects often on the basis of design or policy defects, the UDC’s failure highlights the importance of financial and political support in shaping the success of subsidized housing.