Dissatisfied with the performance of government and the for-profit sector in the provision of low-income housing, housing policymakers have increasingly turned to the nonprofit sector. The nonprofit housing sector, despite its small size in the United States and its serious problems with production and management capacity, benefits in the public eye from the positive aura of volunteerism, coupled with the vague promise of shifting governmental fiscal burdens to philanthropy and private charity. But despite the favorable aura of nonprofit housing, governments and housing advocates in the United States display limited understanding of the nonprofit sector. This book addresses this deficiency by examining theory, research, and policy. It moves beyond descriptions of current nonprofit housing providers and the programs they use, to a deeper level of understanding of the nonprofit housing sector, providing the policymaker, administrator, and advocate, as well as the scholar and student, with the theoretical and research grounding from which to develop better policies, practices, and research.

Contributors to this book include Peter J. Boelhouwer, Rachel G. Bratt, Peter Dreier, Robert Dyck, Scott Hebert, C. Theodore Koebel, William M. Rohe, Bishwapriya Sanyal, Richard Steinberg, Harry M. H. van der Heiden, James Wallace, and Robert B. Whittlesey.