A House Shared

Across North America, families have lost homes, millions live on the street, affordable housing is out of reach, and buyers compete for fewer available properties. It is a crisis that strikes at the heart of a fundamental human right — the right to shelter, the right to a safe and secure living environment.

Together with co-author Patricia Nicholson, real estate innovator Adam Gant weaves a richly textured tale that explores new ways of thinking about housing affordability and availability.

It is a parable for our times, focused on the struggle of one family, whose comfortable lifestyle is based on well-paying jobs in the software industry. When misfortune strikes, their world shatters. Suddenly they find themselves fighting for survival — and fighting against market forces that make eviction seem inevitable, and homelessness a frightening possibility.

In the end, their way out is a solution that the authors contend could easily be applied in neighborhoods across the globe: the concept of “shared equity.”

Adam Gant first imagined this idea after examining the root causes of the 2008-2009 financial crisis. He devoted years to studying mortgages and markets in a variety of countries. He discovered what works and what doesn’t in a wide range of communities and cultures. Based on this rigorously empirical research, he began to outline the details of “shared equity.”

This macro financial concept is woven throughout A House Shared, transporting the main characters beyond their dire circumstances into a life that illustrates the potential for saving countless other families from a similar financial fate.