Housing in America: A Resource Guide

For millions of Americans who are experiencing homelessness or who are inadequately housed, finding safe, comfortable, and permanent housing seems forever out of reach. How is it possible that in one of the richest nations in the world, so many lack access to this most basic human need? Use the resources in this guide to learn more about how we got to where we are today, what is being done to address this problem, and where we are going in the future.

The housing crisis has its roots in many facets of everyday life, including affordable housing and the lack thereof, poverty, homelessness, real estate and mortgage lending practices, discrimination, zoning, and urban and suburban planning and development. This booklist was created in support of the upcoming library’s Housing Justice Forum and for those who are interested in exploring this complicated and complex topic to answer the questions of how we got here and what can be done.

Read

Watch/Listen

Many of these films and videos are available online; others may be available through streaming services:

Citizen Architect: a documentary film that follows a group of university students who explore architecture’s role in addressing issues of poverty, class, race, education, social change, and citizenship in a rural Alabama community. Available for checkout by PPL cardholders.
Citizen Jane: a documentary recalling the efforts of Jane Jacobs, activist and author of The Death and Life of Great American Cities, to prevent urban planner Robert Moses from razing and building over historic sections of New York City in the 1950s and ’60s. Available for checkout by PPL Cardholders.
Urbanized: a documentary film that looks at the way cities around the world are designed, and the efforts being made to make urban living more functional. Available for checkout by PPL Cardholders.
Plunder: a documentary that explores how the financial crisis was built on a foundation of criminal activity, uncovering the connection between the collapse of the housing market and the economic catastrophe that followed. Available for checkout by PPL Cardholders.
Segregated by Design: a short film that “examine[s] the forgotten history of how our federal, state and local governments unconstitutionally segregated every major metropolitan area in America through law and policy.”
Unzipped: An Autopsy of American Inequality: a documentary on the growing unaffordable housing crisis in Venice, California.
Nomadland: An older woman travels across the West, embracing the nomad life and van living in this feature film starring Frances McDormand. Based on the non-fiction book of the same name by Jessica Bruder. The film and book are part of the library’s collection and are available for checkout.
Brick by Brick: A Civil Rights Story: a documentary of stories that follow three families as they encounter housing, racial, and educational discrimination in their community of Yonkers, NY. Free to view by PPL library cardholders via Access Films on Demand.
Fair Housing Film and Video Recommendations: a playlist from the National Association of Realtors of clips and short films focused on housing justice issues.
Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies: a YouTube playlist of scholarly presentations and discussions on housing inequities.
Show Me a Hero: a six-part HBO miniseries that explores the topics of race, community and home. Based on the true story of Yonkers mayor, Nick Wasicsko and from the book with the same title by Lisa Belkin.

NPR (National Public Radio) has a number of podcasts exploring housing issues such as:

Out of the Archives is a podcast from the National Housing Museum that offers oral histories and stories from public housing residents.

Research

Use the resources below to explore the wide variety of information from federal, state, and local governments, as well as private and public organizations, all dealing with housing topics. While not comprehensive, this list serves as an entry point for those interested in learning more about this timely topic.

Statistics and Reports

American Housing Survey: The most comprehensive national housing survey sponsored by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and conducted by the US Census Bureau. It provides data on housing, housing characteristics, and demographic information on over 40 selected Metropolitan Areas.
Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University: Works to provide a greater understanding and knowledge of housing issues through research, programs, and outreach. Download or view their major publication, The State of the Nation’s Housing 2022, which includes interactive maps and charts, fact sheets, and data sources.
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD): Created to support community development and homeownership, HUD offers the US Housing Market Conditions, divided by regions, states, and individual communities. For example, New Jersey includes Comprehensive Housing Market Analysis, Trenton-Princeton, New Jersey. Also available is a list of public interest groups.
Urban and Regional Planning: A Research Guide: Housing: A libguide from SUNY Albany, includes films and videos list, book lists and bibliographies. Libguides are research and resource guides on specific topics found on many university library websites.
Princeton Eviction Lab: Associated with Princeton University, it creates data, interactive tools, and research to help neighbors and policymakers understand the eviction crisis.
Princeton Community Needs Assessment 2020-2022: Assessments conducted by Princeton Human Services examine the needs of low-moderate income residents in order to determine service gaps and plan for additional services to meet needs in the wake of the pandemic.
Princeton’s Profile 2014: An in-depth analysis of Princeton based on decennial census and American Community Survey data between 1990 and 2014.
Princeton Quickfacts: Population, individual, and household demographics based on the most recent census data available.
Pew Research Center: Homeownership & Renting: A compilation of articles on a variety of timely housing issues, including affordability, ownership disparities among ethnic groups and different age groups, and the impact of the pandemic on the housing market.
National Low Income Housing Coalition: The NLIHC provides user-friendly data, organized by state, about housing affordability, where individuals can understand how cost of living impacts their rental housing options. See New Jersey’s fact sheet.

Maps

Princeton Affordable Housing Map: An ongoing project of the Historical Society of Princeton, this interactive story map provides historical context to the existence of housing inequity in Princeton and discusses the potential impacts of future developments.
Princeton at the Turn of the 20th Century: Created by Tsering Wangyal Shawa, Geographic Information Systems and Map Librarian at Princeton University, this project “explores methodology and workflows of spatially linking the United States historical population census data to individual houses” in both urban and rural areas.
Could Where You Live Influence How Long You Live?: This interactive tool from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation uses the National Center for Health Statistics’s neighborhood-level data to demonstrate how where you live can impact how long you live.
New Jersey Community Asset Map:An interactive mapping tool with economic, housing, and demographic info for each municipality from the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs.
Mapping Inequality: Redlining in New Deal America:Historical data from University of Richmond’s Digital Scholarship Lab, providing a historical look at housing discrimination. For additional information, read this NPR article about the project.

Directories of Organizations Offering Assistance and Advocacy

Community Housing Resources: Just Shelter: A national directory of organizations that work to “preserve affordable housing, prevent eviction, and reduce family homelessness.” Searchable by state.
Engage Princeton: A local directory of current organizations focused on issues related to housing in Princeton.
Fair Share Housing Center: A nonprofit advocacy organization that uses legal, policy, and community-building strategies to fight for housing justice in New Jersey and beyond.
NJ Department of Community Affairs, Division of Housing and Community Services: This government department oversees funding programs for community and neighborhood development programs as well as homelessness prevention, Section 8, and emergency housing. The DCA Data Hub contains a wide selection of historical and current data tables, as well.

Tenant/Landlord

Tenants Rights in New Jersey: A Legal Manual for Tenants in New Jersey: Written and published by Legal Services of New Jersey, this publication provides an overview and helpful information for tenants in New Jersey, with chapters on security deposits, leases and knowing your rights.
Landlord/Tenant from New Jersey Courts: This site provides forms and step-by-step guidelines for tenants and landlords entering the legal system to resolve housing disputes.

Library Databases

The library subscribes to a significant collection of research databases that are searchable using a variety of options such as keyword and subject. Many of the research articles found in these databases are available in full-text and provide immediate access to the contents of the articles, journals, and magazines. All visitors to the library can access these databases while in the library, and PPL cardholders can access most from home with their library card number and PIN (usually the last 4 digits of the cardholder’s phone number). Our complete list of databases can be found here. Databases of particular interest on the topic related to housing justice are:

Suggested general search terms are housing, “affordable housing, “low cost housing,” “housing crisis,” or “housing market, ” or other related areas. Use quotation marks around multiple word subject terms. Combine terms for more specific searching or to limit the search results, connecting them with AND. For example: “affordable housing” AND poverty or housing AND discrimination.

PPL cardholders also have access to the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal from home via a special code available from the Information Desk on the second floor.

Please contact us if you need assistance searching these databases or to receive the codes for NYT and WSJ.