A Right to Housing?

It should come as a surprise to no one that the cost of housing has far outpaced growth in wages since 2000-it’s nothing short of an economic catastrophe for the idea of an American middle class. So, how can we unravel a tangled system that exists at local, state, and federal levels? Stein, a policy researcher and housing advocate writing in the wake of Zohran Mamdani’s historic political victory, has some worthwhile ideas, both practical and aspirational. – Most Anticipated Books of 2026 * Lit Hub *
Highly recommended for activists of all stripes, but a must-read for everyone who has struggled to instantiate a human right to housing. – Gail Radford, author of Modern Housing for America
A deeply thoughtful and provocative exploration of housing politics in the current conjuncture. – David Madden, co-author of In Defense of Housing
Stein provides the socialist movement a rare gift: that of honesty. A powerful little book, precisely because it demands that we start from the truth of our situation, and what a dismal truth that is, but that we nonetheless keep fighting. – Kafui Attoh, author of Rights in Transit
What a pleasure to see inside the doubting mind of Samuel Stein as he grapples with the impossibility of our housing quagmire. If you too have the uncomfortable suspicion that solving housing might be hopeless: read this book. – Amanda Huron, author of Carving out the Commons

Samuel Stein is the author of Capital City. He works as a housing policy researcher and advocate in New York City. He has written on urban politics and planning in the New York Review of Books, Baffler, New York Review of Architecture, Guardian, and n+1, among other publications.

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