HOUSING AND WELFARE IN THE UNITED STATES

Despite being one of the wealthiest countries in the world, the United States provides very little assistance to the poor. Social welfare spending in the United States is well below the average of all OECD countries (OECD Social Expenditure Report). Furthermore, recent studies have shown that social spending in the United States is allocated primarily to the elderly, rather than to working families. (Tikkanen & Schneider, 2020) This is particularly true in the realm of housing, where only one-quarter of families who qualify for housing assistance receive it. The reasons for this failure are numerous – from a conception of housing as an investment or asset rather than home or shelter to a particularly American ideology that values the protestant work ethic and individualism over egalitarianism (Erikson & Tedin, 2003; Hays, 1985). The United States is more politically conservative than most other OECD countries. The average American is much more likely to view government as a cause of, rather than a solution to, social problems. Thus, limiting government intervention in the housing sphere is viewed by most Americans as the most effective mechanism to alleviate housing problems.