SURF Jaina Elaine Nehm

This project builds on my ongoing research interest in United States housing policy. Feminist theorists have argued that the household is a site of social reproduction,“ a broad term that refers to a society’s capacity to maintain families, care for elders, raise children, tend to the needs of people over their lifetimes, and cultivate socially desirable values and practices that maintain neighborly relations and bind communities together. Faculty and SURF fellow will draw on insights from feminist social reproduction theory and the emerging framework of solidarity economics to examine local housing policy campaigns and initiatives.
Entry-level home prices have been climbing in a period of job market instability, decades-long downward pressure on real wages, and now, rising interest rates. Housing is a key strategy for building towards economic security in old age and for the transfer of inter-generational wealth. For many households, however, not only is the proverbial house + automobile part of the "American dream", increasingly out of reach, even renting a home and working towards building wealth has become challenging in the current economic context.
This project will examine current conditions in the South Sound housing market, contemporary housing policies, as well as local discourse on housing rights and initiatives to address housing justice. How are housing advocates, policymakers and local communities thinking about re-designing built environments to address social needs and social reproduction? How are housing authorities in cities in the South Sound addressing affordable housing and rising rents? How are housing justice advocates and renters rights groups, engaging with housing authorities, local initiatives and campaigns for housing justice?