Conor Dougherty Books

Spacious and affordable homes used to be the hallmark of American prosperity. Today, however, punishing rents and the increasingly prohibitive cost of ownership have turned housing into the foremost symbol of inequality and an economy gone wrong. Nowhere is this more visible than in the San Francisco Bay Area, where fleets of private buses ferry software engineers past the tarp- and-plywood shanties of the homeless. The adage that California is a glimpse of the nation's future has become a cautionary tale. With propulsive storytelling and ground-level reporting, New York Times journalist Conor Dougherty chronicles America's housing crisis from its West Coast epicenter, peeling back the decades of history and economic forces that brought us here and taking readers inside the activist movements that have risen in tandem with housing costs.

Spacious and affordable homes once symbolized American prosperity, but today, soaring rents and ownership costs have transformed housing into a stark representation of inequality. This crisis is particularly evident in the San Francisco Bay Area, where tech workers commute past makeshift shelters of the homeless. California's situation serves as a cautionary tale for the nation. Through compelling storytelling and in-depth reporting, New York Times journalist Conor Dougherty examines America's housing crisis from its West Coast epicenter, revealing the historical and economic factors that led to this moment. He highlights grassroots activism emerging alongside rising housing costs, featuring a struggling math teacher who rallies for change in single-family neighborhoods, a teenage girl leading her apartment complex against rent hikes, a nun striving to counter private equity by acquiring affordable homes, a suburban bureaucrat advocating for density in light of climate change, and a developer creating housing for the homeless via assembly line methods. With a broad perspective and personal narratives, this account captures a significant political shift amid rapid technological and social transformation.