Date of Award
2022
Document Type
Honors Thesis (Open Access)
Department
Colby College. Government Dept.
Advisor(s)
Carrie LeVan
Second Advisor
Nicholas Jacobs
Abstract
This thesis examines the role played by city-level governments in determining the availability of housing within their locale. I propose an overarching hypothesis that features of government which provide greater opportunity for the public to influence their local governments will lead to a decreased availability of housing. This hypothesis is tested over the course of two chapters. First, through an analysis of cities throughout California, the effect of different structural features of government are tested against several dependent variables which measure housing availability in a series of linear regressions. A statistically significant positive correlation is found between the presence of term limits for elected officials, and a city’s vacancy rate. While no other hypotheses are confirmed to the degree of statistical significance, several trend in the hypothesized direction, suggesting a need for further research with a larger sample size. Second, the effect of recent efforts by the state of California to coerce cities into increasing housing construction is examined qualitatively. I find that enforcement of these laws will likely induce greater housing availability statewide.
Keywords
Housing, California, Local Government, Term Limits, Federalism, City Council
Recommended Citation
Joshi-Wander, Ravi S., "“…To Represent the Needs of the Residents—Not the Needs of the Outsiders” California’s Housing Crisis and the Dilemma of Local Control" (2022). Honors Theses. Paper 1337.https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/honorstheses/1337