Housing movement coalitions in the United States: Trends from big networks among urban civil society leaders

Abstract

Coalitions of formal housing, civil rights and anti-poverty organisations play an important role in urban housing movements. However, the extent and dynamics of these ‘housing movement coalitions’ are not well understood. In this article, I document the geography of housing movement coalitions across 148 US cities using leadership networks among 11.8 million civic leaders. I show that cohesive coalitions of formal housing, civil rights and anti-poverty leaders exist in a wide range of US cities, including in conservative states. In terms of change, housing coalitions have only grown in a handful of politically liberal cities since the global financial crisis, and most housing coalitions have stagnated and some have declined. Finally, change score regression models indicate that economic insecurity is associated with housing coalition emergence, but municipal austerity and hostile political environments may weaken the opportunities for coalitions to expand. These findings suggest movement scholars should widen their focus to include housing coalitions in more diverse contexts, and more closely examine how municipal funding shapes housing coalitions and their relationship to grassroots activism.