Eli Spivak

, owner of Orange Splot, a housing development company providing non-traditional housing options to people who might otherwise not be able to afford a home in Portland, Oregon. The narrative goes something like this: get a college degree, get a full-time job, get married and buy a house. Homeownership has long been the pinnacle of American success—a symbol of adulthood, financial success and stability. Decades of government policies were built on that ideal and yet, Americans are changing. They’re graduating from college with far more student debt than their parents. They’re struggling to find work and more likely to jump from job to job, city to city. They’re marrying later—if at all. Mechele Dickerson says it’s time for a new housing conversation that stops focusing on ways to justify homeownership subsidies and stops assuming that owning is always better than renting.