Social Housing Can Work
Confronted with a deepening housing affordability crisis across the country, some US legislators are turning to the successful social housing programs of countries like Austria and Singapore. We spoke to two of them, from Hawaii and California.
Sun King Apartments, a housing project in Sun Valley, California, April 10, 2024. (Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
At a time of a widespread housing affordability crisis around the country, Hawaii State Senator Stanley Chang and California Assemblyman Alex Lee say they want to use the social housing lessons of Vienna and Singapore to address the crises in their home states. In the process, they aim to create models that can be followed across the United States.
Chang is the chair of the Housing Committee of the Hawaii State Senate. He has sponsored legislation to create ALOHA (Affordable Locally-Owned Homes for All) Homes: owner-occupied, dense, transit-oriented developments. ALOHA Homes is based on the Singapore public housing system and thus designed to be open to residents of all incomes.
Lee is chair of the California Assembly’s Select Committee on Social Housing. He is the author of the Social Housing Act, which would establish the California Housing Authority to produce mixed-income social housing on state-owned land.
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