How can we solve Dallas' affordable housing crisis? (Points Summer Book Club, Day 5) | Commentary

Today, we wrap up our weeklong Points Summer Book Club discussion of Matthew Desmond's Evicted. The conversation is taking place on Facebook, in the Literary Dallas group. Joining the conversation is easy, but if you need instructions, this post should help.

Here's today's topic of discussion:

In Evicted, Matthew Desmond makes the case that the right to a decent home is part of what it means to be an American. And our eviction epidemic is challenging that: "Losing your home and possessions and often your job; being stamped with an eviction record and denied government housing assistance; relocating to degrading housing in poor and dangerous neighborhoods; and suffering from increased material hardship, homelessness, depression, and illness — this is eviction's fallout," he writes on Page 298.

He suggests solutions both small and big, from increased legal aid to outlawing discrimination against voucher holders to implementing a universal voucher program. 

• What do you think are the best ways to address the affordable housing crisis: through government policies, market mechanisms, church initiatives, or something else?
  
• Some of these solutions are federal, but many of them are local. What could be done in Dallas specifically to address our affordable housing crisis?
  
• Desmond makes the case that America has the money to solve this problem. So what do you think is getting in the way?
  
• If you're a homeowner, would you be willing to give up some or all of your mortgage-interest deduction in order to provide more funding for the impoverished? Why or why not?
  
• What was your biggest takeaway from reading Evicted? Were you surprised by what you learned? Do you think reading this book will change how you view poverty in Dallas and beyond?