A01=Rosemary Ndubuizu
Affordable Housing Politics
and Political Economy
and Residential Segregation
Author_Rosemary Ndubuizu
Black feminist materialism
Black Women Tenant Activism
Capital Flight
Category=JBSD
Category=JBSF
Category=JBSL
Civil Rights Movement and Tenant Activism
DC
Economic Inequality
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eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
Gender
Gender and Residential Discrimination
Gender in Welfare Politics
Gentrification
Housing Segregation
Nonprofits and Gentrification
Postwar Washington
Race
Racial and Gender Discrimination
Stereotypes
Welfare Politics in the Federal City
Product details
- ISBN 9781469689685
- Dimensions: 25 x 235mm
- Publication Date: 04 Nov 2025
- Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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Amid a national housing affordability crisis with political and social implications, Washington, DC is notorious for its rapidly rising income inequality, high rates of displacement, and some of the most expensive rents in the country. Housing policy expert Rosemary Ndubuizu uncovers more than years of affordable housing politics in the nation's capital to illustrate local and national trends in how various social, economic, and political forces have worked together to ensure the persistent vulnerability of low-wage Black families to housing insecurity and displacement.
Since the 9 s, Black women have been at the forefront of combating efforts to force them out of DC. The Undesirable Many recounts the history of Black women's tenant activism and organized opposition through a Black feminist materialism framework that exposes present-day housing inequities as deeply entangled in the politics and practices of gender and racial inequity. Drawing upon extensive archival research and dozens of in-depth interviews with Black women tenant activists and affordable housing advocates, Ndubuizu uncovers how gendered stereotypes of Black tenant irresponsibility have shaped market behavior and informed political justification for different consumer treatment. Politicians, landlords, and even nonprofit housing providers often championed disciplinary housing governance such as mandatory housekeeping classes, welfare garnishment, paternal property management, and case management, contending that the problem was not housing but the Black family itself. By exposing these strategies alongside low-income Black women's political perspectives and experiences, The Undesirable Many offers valuable lessons for contemporary challenges in affordable housing advocacy and welfare politics.
Since the 9 s, Black women have been at the forefront of combating efforts to force them out of DC. The Undesirable Many recounts the history of Black women's tenant activism and organized opposition through a Black feminist materialism framework that exposes present-day housing inequities as deeply entangled in the politics and practices of gender and racial inequity. Drawing upon extensive archival research and dozens of in-depth interviews with Black women tenant activists and affordable housing advocates, Ndubuizu uncovers how gendered stereotypes of Black tenant irresponsibility have shaped market behavior and informed political justification for different consumer treatment. Politicians, landlords, and even nonprofit housing providers often championed disciplinary housing governance such as mandatory housekeeping classes, welfare garnishment, paternal property management, and case management, contending that the problem was not housing but the Black family itself. By exposing these strategies alongside low-income Black women's political perspectives and experiences, The Undesirable Many offers valuable lessons for contemporary challenges in affordable housing advocacy and welfare politics.
Rosemary Ndubuizu is assistant professor of Black studies at Georgetown University.
