Book Discussion: On the Housing Crisis by Jerusalem Demsas
Join us for a conversation about the book On the Housing Crisis, by Jerusalem Demsas. This event is co-hosted by the South Burlington Affordable Housing Committee and the South Burlington Public Library. Learn about and discuss the causes and effects of homelessness and housing instability in South Burlington and Vermont. The discussion will be moderated by Jess Hyman of the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity's Statewide Housing Advocacy Programs and by the Affordable Housing Committee.
Several copies of this 160 page anthology are available for circulation at the Library, and a Kindle version is also available for less than $5.00.
This short collection of 14 essays have all been published in The Atlantic over the past few years and the book is provides a clear framework of the housing crisis in the United States. The topics range from persuasive arguments about our local communities allowing “too much” input, to a discussion of NIMBYism and the causes and solutions to homelessness. The first article is an impressive one on local decision making for what Jerusalem Demsas believes is a state or national problem.
About the Author:
Jerusalem Demsas is a Staff Writer for The Atlantic. At The Atlantic, Jerusalem focuses on coverage of housing and the economy. While previously working with Vox, she has explored some of the biggest questions about where and how we live in her writing and as a co-host of The Weeds, including whether gentrification can occur without displacement and why it costs so much to build things in the United States. Before Vox, Jerusalem worked in political communications and on climate-change-policy research.
About the Book:
In this precise collection, Atlantic staff writer Jerusalem Demsas turns her expertise and keen eye to the housing shortage, one of our country’s most dire yet widely misunderstood public frustrations. Demsas examines how local democracies have become coconspirators in the anti-development aspirations of the very few, at the hefty expense of the many. These essays identify the inefficiencies and irrationalities of contemporary land-use politics and the stages they play out on, offering readers a refreshing and accessible guide to a generational crisis.
This book is available to borrow from the library.