What Is 'Neoliberalism' Exactly? [GuestOpEd]

If you’ve been following the local slop wars we call SF politics you might have noticed a new word being flung at YIMBY pro-housing advocates - “neoliberal’ - and wondered what it means.

Neoliberalism refers to policies that privatize public services. This can mean the government abandons provision of the public service altogether; or instead of directly providing the service the government passes rules or regulations that are supposed to ensure that private industry provides the service; or the government contracts with private nonprofits to provide the service; or all three.

Neoliberalism is the opposite of the welfare state. Liberals and socialists generally hate neoliberalism because it results in fewer public services, channels public tax dollars to private interests and when governments contract with nonprofits to do government work, it breaks public sector unions. However, some neoliberal policies, like rent control and inclusionary zoning, are popular with people who consider themselves progressive.

From the 1930s until the 1970s the federal government owned and operated subsidized public housing for low income people to live in. These projects operated pretty smoothly. In the 1970s, the federal government decided they didn’t want to pay to provide this public service any more. They starved the housing projects of money until the 1990s when most of the projects were completely deteriorated and had to be torn down.

Insofar as the federal government continues to participate in subsidizing public housing, instead of owning & operating their own developments, they contract with private non-profits - like Mercy Housing, Bridge, Mission Housing Development Corporation, Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation, or Mission Economic Development Agency - to build, own and maintain low-income housing.

Since the 1970s, local governments have enacted other popular “neoliberal” strategies to protect housing options for low-income residents: rent control and inclusionary zoning. Both of these policies rely on the private market to provide (what should be) a public service. While many San Franciscans rely on these policies for housing stability, they can have unintended consequences, namely redirecting aid to the middle class, away from lower income people. A study by the Rent Board in 2002 showed that as many as 40% of tenants in rent controlled apartments earned 120% of the area median income or above. 20% of the housing produced by inclusionary zoning benefits people making more than the median income.

The YIMBY Party supports the classical welfare state solution to the problem of how to house people who can't work at all, or are trying to raise a family while earning minimum wage - public subsidy from all of the taxpayers to the lowest income people. Everyone benefits from subsidized housing, not just the people that live in it. For example, if you shop somewhere with low income employees receiving public assistance, then the price of the thing you buy is subsidized by that housing program.

To support real public solutions, please call Nancy Pelosi’s office, (202) 225-4965, & tell her you support HR 948, sponsored by Keith Ellison. HR 948 is a bill that would reduce the mortgage income tax deduction (which is a subsidy for people rich enough to have recently bought a house) and use the money to subsidize housing for the lowest income Americans.

Nancy Pelosi is currently opposed to HR 948! She is very powerful in the House of Representatives, so she needs to hear from us that she is on the wrong track. Pelosi needs to hear that San Franciscans really care about public housing, not just name calling and posturing.

Sonja Trauss is a YIMBY pro-housing activist in San Francisco, and leads the non-profit organization CaRLA. We welcome op-ed submissions from our readers on any topic of local interest. To submit yours, email info@baycitybeacon.com.

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