This Book Tells the Truth About Why America Doesn’t Build
In On the Housing Crisis, Jerusalem Demsas reveals the democratic stakes of America’s housing politics
Demsas opens her book with a simple invitation: “Consider how a home is built.”
This is a clear signal of where her attention sits. She starts with the act of construction itself, which is a breath of fresh air. So rarely is the actual process of building centered in our housing crisis conversations. The consideration of how a home is built is also the heart of our ethos at CITYBUILDER.
Have you ever walked out of a public hearing wondering why something so small felt so impossible? Jerusalem Demsas has written the book that explains why. On the Housing Crisis is a short but powerful read which highlights works from her reporting at The Atlantic. Its pages lay out the truth at the center of America’s housing shortage: our political systems make it too easy to block new homes and too hard to welcome new neighbors.
By the way — she continues this work today at The Argument, a publication right here on Substack where she brings the same mix of clarity and narrative insight to the issues shaping our nation.
The essays in On the Housing Crisis jump from big picture battles to deeply intimate stories, pulling you from Local Government Has Too Much Power and Why America Doesn’t Build straight into pieces like What’s Causing Black Flight and The Root Cause of the Homelessness Crisis. The constant scope shift is exactly what makes her work distinct. She can hold policy and personal narrative together in a way that keeps the stakes human. This style makes it easy to connect with her reporting. Demsas makes visible the quiet structures that shape our lives and our cities. She pulls the housing crisis out of the realm of vibes and headlines and pushes it into the realm of democracy.
In the book’s introduction, Demsas captures the spirit of her project:
“We need to move the politics of land into the domain of democratic participation, instead of leaving it to the zoning boards, historic preservation committees, and courtrooms. The people who decide what gets built or does not get built in America should be accountable to the public, should have to justify their decisions, and should stand ready to win or lose elections as a result.”
This is the work CITYBUILDER takes on every day.
We push for decisions about land and housing to be made at the level where they can actually solve the problem, whether that is regional, local, or state. We want public decisions to serve the entire public, not a narrow slice of it, and we believe transparency and understanding is how we get there. Because fundamentally, we believe that growth is good when people help build the future together.
Demsas is part of a cultural shift many of us feel in our bones. A generation raised in scarcity is ready for a politics built on abundance. This book’s release was a breath of fresh air, because Demsas put into words what so many of us had been noticing quietly. Her writing resonates because it mirrors what we see in council chambers, planning meetings, and neighborhood conversations across Raleigh and Durham.
Our CITYBUILDER Book Club has tackled a lot of good books this year. But I couldn’t be more excited to lead the conversation on this one. On the Housing Crisis is sharp, quick to read, and full of the exact arguments we need to understand if we want a stronger, more welcoming Triangle. It covers everything from NIMBYism to gentrification to billionaire panic to the real causes of homelessness. And at just 137 pages, you can easily finish it before we meet next week. But as always, you don’t have to, you can join us just for the conversation.
If you want a grounding in why our housing politics feel stuck, and what it takes to unstick them, this book will lay it out in plain language.
And if you want to understand how these national ideas meet our local fights — rezonings, code rewrites, missing middle reform, stormwater rules, and the decisions that decide who gets to live here — then you should join us for the conversation.
Join CITYBUILDER Book Club
📘 On the Housing Crisis by Jerusalem Demsas
📅 Wed Dec 3rd 12:00pm - 1:00pm
📍 PRESS Coffee Crêpes Cocktails
400 Hillsborough St suite 108, Raleigh, NC 27603, USA
👉 RSVP here
Come for the ideas. Stay for the people who want to build a Triangle where everyone has a place to live. We’ll see you there.
Jenn Truman is a young designer, leader, and advocate based in Raleigh, she is embedded in the local community through both her professional and volunteer work. Jenn is a regular contributor and Founder of CITYBUILDER.