AMERICAN DREAM COME TRUE

Bertoldi makes the case for the broader social value of affordable housing in this debut nonfiction book.

“To have the American dream come true,” Jeffrey Whiting writes in the book’s foreword, “there must be help along the way.” As co-founders of CREA, a limited liability company that claims to have benefitted around 230,000 people in need of affordable housing, Whiting and Bertoldi have long advocated that housing not only provides a better life for families but is an essential engine of a thriving economy. Seeking to “destigmatize” and “depoliticize” the topic, Bertoldi begins the book with a series of chapters that introduce readers to the current housing crisis’ impact on local and national economies and the basics of the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC), hoping to “remove the mystery” surrounding a misunderstood industry often greeted by a NIMBY (“Not in My Backyard”) mindset. The book’s middle chapters note the ways in which affordable housing benefits all Americans (including those who have already secured reliable housing) by highlighting its impact on healthcare (“home and health go hand in hand”), business (more than 40% of the consumer price index “is driven by housing costs”), and important ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) standards for increasingly socially conscious corporations. The book concludes with nonpartisan, workable solutions that the author believes policymakers, investors, and voters across ideological lines could support. With an MBA in finance from Boston University and decades of experience with LIHTC, Bertoldi does an admirable job of acquainting neophytes with the basics of the housing industry while also backing his claims with a wealth of data and dozens of footnotes for those who need to see the underlying research. This emphasis on accessibility is further reflected by the book’s concise writing style, which delivers an engaging narrative in less than 130 total pages and is accompanied by an ample assortment of charts, graphs, and other visual aids.

A well-researched, user-friendly introduction to the importance of affordable housing.