Blighted by Margaret Stagmeier

Blighted by Margaret Stagmeier is a book about the housing crisis that plagues American cities, with a specific focus on the challenges of blighted properties. Stagmeier, an expert in real estate and social entrepreneurship, uses her experience redeveloping a specific, distressed Atlanta property as a microcosm of the challenges of affordable housing in the US.

The book examines the crazy web of factors that lead to blight, including economic disinvestment, failed urban policies, and the decline of community infrastructure. Stagmeier argues that blighted properties are not just a symptom of poverty but also a cause, perpetuating a cycle of decline that affects entire communities. It’s one of those excellent non-fiction books that provides so much nuance and complexity to an issue but also provides hopes and solutions because it gets into how every part of the cycle has clear causes and clear solutions (even if they are extremely difficult to implement).

I love how throughout the book, Stagmeier weaves in real-life examples and personal experiences, showcasing the human impact of blight and the potential for positive change through innovative solutions. She emphasizes the importance of collaborative efforts between the public and private sectors to revitalize affected areas, improve housing conditions, and foster sustainable community development.

I not only live in Atlanta, but I know exactly where this complex is. I learned a lot about my City reading it.

The main themes of “Blighted” include the social responsibility of property ownership, the role of government in urban development, and the power of individuals doing the right thing. I like how Stagmeier champions a holistic approach to tackling blight, one that addresses not only the physical decay of buildings but also the social and economic revitalization of communities – instead of just editing rows on a spreadsheet.

What I Liked

The details are incredible. The storytelling is even better. The author is a good writer, but even more, she has something to write about. And you can tell throughout the book.

Everyone who has never owned property or been a landlord loves to hate on landlords. A good bit of the hate is fair. The real estate industry attracts its share of truly greedy, awful people. But there are a lot of developers just trying to improve their city, provide a good product, and make a return from the product. And, like any good product, it costs money to provide it. Building materials cost money. Talented maintenance workers cost money. Loans cost money. Insurance costs money. And taxes most definitely cost money. And it’s hard to discuss those costs & fairness without real numbers. I love how this book provides real numbers to discuss.

I love that the book focuses on a specific property with real people, real variables, and a real context. There’s no hypotheticals. There’s no philosophy or spreadsheets. It’s just a microcosm of what affordable housing looks like in the US in the 21st Century. I love the pragmatism of the book.

What I Did Not Like

There are a few chapters that could use some editing, but it’s also fairly skimmable.

The one thing I didn’t like was that she really leaned into the success of her model. And she should! The project was a success. I know the of the property and the school – they are doing fine relative to the rest of the area. But my takeaway from the book was that there is no way this public / private model works as the standard affordable housing model across America. There’s too much risk, too many human variables, and it requires too much commitment from too many people. And honestly, she herself says that her model fights against short-term profit maximizing logic. Her model makes so much sense….in the long-term. But there simply are not enough private institutions with a long-term profit horizon.

Speaking simply as someone who lives in the area of Atlanta as this project, for every public-private collaborative project that succeeds…there are DOZENS of projects happening in the same area that follow the harsh short-term economic logic of real estate. I thought the book would influence me towards voting for politicians pushing more private-public development. Instead, the book made me look for more liberal solutions. We either need to try the public housing model again OR we need to make housing like food stamps (a famously efficient & effective program) where we let private developers do their free market thing (like grocery stores do) and give everyone the ability to compete in that free market.

Takeaways

Instability in housing is the root cause of so many other societal problems, especially in education where some schools see 75% transiency (i.e., 75% of the students enrolled at the beginning of a year are gone by the end of the school year). Transiency

Treating housing as a commodity or a pure financial asset creates so many issues. Raising rents and cancelling leases are part of private property rights…but landlords should also have to consider economic externalities that they shove onto neighbors, the police force, the education system, other businesses, etc.

Cost of code compliance in renovations & housing creates opportunity costs. Agencies who are in charge of writing otherwise good rules should balance the cost of implementation against the costs of homelessness. No one wants subpar, slum housing in America. But lack of cost exemptions and expedited enforcement adds real costs that increase the possible cost of housing.

Municipalities can implement small safety reforms like criminal trespass citations that balance the need to enforce the law and create an atmosphere of safety while also avoiding putting kids in the prison pipeline for life.

Cross-collaboration among private developers and public agencies and non-profits can work. And when it does, it’s great. The issue is scaling this model to millions of units for millions of people.

Non-profits and for-profit companies serve key roles in many areas of life. But there are too many in the United States. We’ve outsourced too many core government functions to either private, profit-seeking companies (if the area is right-leaning) OR to private, non-profit organizations (if the area is left-leaning). We have too many small companies and non-profits working on obscure, non-competitive areas of the economy doing the job that a well-qualified, well-paid bureaucrat could just do. In our striving for less government, we’ve created more government…it’s just less visible, less accountable, and WAY MORE EXPENSIVE than just hiring someone to do the job. The key example in the book was the travails of adding a handicap ramp for a subsidized unit. The Atlanta Housing Authority was in charge of disbursing the money. But they had outsourced the planning & regulation formation to a non-profit and the enforcement to a list of engineering firms. The amount of time, coordination, and costs and fees going everywhere…except the ADA ramp and cost of the unit was insane…when, I don’t know, the Atlanta Housing Authority could just, hire a person? Politicians need to do a better job telling what it actually takes to solve a problem, and then do it right.