Selling Subsidies: Assessing the Organizational Messaging of U.S. Public Housing Authorities

• In Event: Organizations, Occupations, and Work Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 28: State, market, civil society

Abstract

Although never purely public entities, municipal public housing authorities (PHAs) in the United States have been pushed to privatize their funding and operations since the neoliberal turn in global governance left them with scarce public resources. PHAs have responded to these pressures in varied ways, with many pivoting to new service provision models that put them in a better position to attain deals with private entities. How these organizational actions have influenced PHAs' public messaging, however, remains unclear. In this study, I will use programmatic material; including webpages, press releases, administrative planning documents, and meeting minutes; from 20 PHAs through out the U.S. to answer the following question: How are conditions of resource scarcity, and by extension the push towards privatization, reflected in PHAs’ organizational messaging? This research will contribute to our understanding of the organizational manifestations of privatizing once-public institutions, enlighten governance practices over vulnerable residents that must increasingly answer to the private sector, and illuminate the context under which Americans seeking housing services, who may be uniquely prone to disengaging from government institutions, interface with financially bleeding PHAs.

Author

• Grace Charlotte Sementilli, University at Buffalo