In the 1980s, austerity and severe social safety net cuts coincided with the emergence of “new homelessness.” This article examines this policy-induced crisis through the life and work of Houston Congressman Mickey Leland. Grounded in the experiences of his constituents and aligning with the critical housing scholarship of his time, Leland diagnosed homelessness as a structural issue. Leland’s Homeless Person’s Survival Act included a national right to shelter, low-income housing preservation, and rent relief. Though not adopted at the time, this legislation still offers a radical blueprint to eliminate homelessness at the root of housing insecurity.
In 1975, the American Law Institute (ALI) published A Model Land Development Code, a 500-page book designed to reform the foundational laws governing municipal planning in the US. Arising from the urban and environmental crises of the 1960s, the code reflected a broader movement to address land use problems. The goal was to create a new legal framework for land use. Despite its aim to reshape planning practice by redesigning the rules governing bureaucratic institutions, the code is now largely forgotten. This paper explores the code’s origins, its critique of existing laws, and its process of creation and distribution.
