Product details
- ISBN 9780226853901
- Weight: 454g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 07 Dec 2026
- Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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How scarcity shapes nearly every aspect of our rental assistance programs, including the Housing Choice Voucher program.
It’s no secret that the United States is experiencing a housing crisis. While the cost of rental housing has soared since 2000, the median household income has barely changed. The Housing Choice Voucher program is America’s largest rental assistance program, but most households that are eligible for assistance simply cannot get access to it. Without enough resources to serve every eligible household in their communities, public housing agencies keep waiting lists, run lotteries, and claw back vouchers from households that are unable to meet the demands of the housing market. Despite the enormous benefits that come from affordable housing, it’s simply out of reach for most renters in need.
In The Housing Lottery, sociologist Brian J. McCabe takes readers to the frontlines of these housing agencies to understand how scarcity shapes nearly every aspect of the program. Following the bureaucrats charged with making these decisions about allocating housing resources, McCabe shows how decisions and regulations resulting from scarcity have enormous consequences. He presents extensive evidence about the importance of rental assistance for lifting households out of poverty and creating economic opportunity. To improve housing assistance as a public resource and to combat housing insecurity and its negative effects, McCabe argues for a more inclusive, expansive approach to federal housing policy.
Brian J. McCabe is professor of sociology at Georgetown University. He is the author of No Place Like Home: Wealth, Community and the Politics of Homeownership, the coauthor of Democracy Vouchers and the Promise of Fairer Elections in Seattle, and the coeditor of The Sociology of Housing: How Homes Shape Our Social Lives, also published by the University of Chicago Press. He served as the deputy assistant secretary for policy development at the US Department of Housing and Urban Development from 2022 – 2024.
