Golden Gates: Fighting for Housing in America by Conor Dougherty

In Golden Gates: Fighting for Housing in America, journalist Conor Dougherty investigates how America's housing crisis has shifted away from only being a problem for the poorest of citizens and has become a crisis for middle class Americans as well. The story follows multiple families and individuals across the U.S. who are struggling to find affordable housing as a result of soaring prices in markets due to a combination of factors, including a severe shortage in housing, large investments by global players, and local policies that favor developers at the expense of those most in need.

Dougherty looks at the origin of the crisis by exploring its many contributors. He profiles Silicon Valley billionaire Sean Parker whose property investments have driven up costs throughout the Bay Area, and he highlights the role that the tech industry has played in this ‘hollowing out’ of the middle class. He also explores both the local and international causes at play, from planning laws that ignore the basic needs of everyday people, to the influx of overseas investors who are snatching up multiple properties for an investment.

The book touches on how the consequences of this housing crisis have been felt across the country. In the Seattle area, Dougherty meets with a disabled veteran who has been priced out of his beloved Genesee Hill neighborhood and is now living in a homeless shelter. In Los Angeles, he meets a fireman and his wife, who used to own a comfortable home in Redondo Beach, but now find themselves struggling to keep up with soaring rents. In Miami, he meets with a Cuban-American single father of two, who has gone from being a local realtor to homeless due to a combination of housing market prices and the unrelenting demands of being a single parent.

In addition to highlighting the effects of this housing crisis on real people, Dougherty offers a range of potential solutions. He looks into novel efforts such as tiny homes, tiny house villages, and the rise of dual income households. He also addresses development policies and zoning regulations, recommending single-family zoning laws that prioritize affordable housing and affordable housing bonds, taking some cues from cities like Seattle and Berkeley.

Finally, Dougherty looks beyond the issue of housing affordability, to the deeper underlying root causes of the crisis, such as stagnant wages, lack of economic mobility, and economic disadvantages. He offers insights on how to combat the crisis through the use of public policy, such as increasing access to high-quality education for all, finding ways to reduce economic inequality, ensuring better wages for workers, and creating a secure social safety net for workers at all levels of income.

By combining on-the-ground reporting from multiple cities with policy ideas and data on countrywide trends in housing affordability, Dougherty weaves together an incredibly timely, human-centered narrative on the pressing issue of housing insecurity in America. Ultimately, Golden Gates is an imperative read for anyone interested in learning more about the housing crisis and its many contributing factors, as well as potential solutions.