The Establishment of the San Diego Housing Trust Fund: Lessons for Theory and Practice

Abstract

In this paper we give an example of a successful interventionist approach in equity planning by presenting the course of action taken, the strategies chosen, the resources utilized, and the skills exhibited by the planners of the City of San Diego Housing Commission in their successful effort to establish a housing trust fund in that city. We suggest that progressive planners can develop and implement redistributive plans under conditions of adversity. To do so, however, they must devise creative strategies that make sense in the context of the prevailing social and political environment by framing the issue in terms responsive to business concerns and by building consensus through the creative accommodation of competing interests. Consensus building, however, can succeed only if the courting of business interests is accompanied by the mobilization of a strong political movement and the building of coalitions in favor of redistributive programs.