The crisis of affordable housing over the next generation will be concentrated among renters. At the center of this crisis are low-income people of color living in urban areas. Households from these communities have been overrepresented among renters for decades, and in the recent housing market collapse, they have been disproportionately. The crisis of affordable housing over the next generation will be concentrated among renters. At the center of this crisis are low-income people of color living in urban areas. Households from these communities have been overrepresented among renters for decades, and in the recent housing market collapse, they have been disproportionately the victims of foreclosure and foreclosure-related evictions. Historically, these are also the same populations that have been uprooted from their homes and had their communities torn apart — by urban renewal in the post–World War II era and by gentrification and federal poverty de concentration programs more recently. Federal housing policy and the private housing market, rather than providing social and economic stability for historically marginalized households, have instead been the cause of chronic housing insecurity. The crash of the housing market and the bubble that preceded it provide important lessons about the limits (and dangers) of the private housing market and an opportunity to implement more sustainable, evidence and needs-based housing policies. At present, it does not appear that most policymakers have learned these lessons or are poised to act on the historic opportunity to chart a new course. Current housing policy remains biased toward a homeownership model, neglects renters, and continues to place its faith in the very same market mechanisms and actors that precipitated the housing crash in the first place. The well-publicized entry of large private investors into the rental market and federal support for the expansion of private control over housing suggest most policymakers have learned little, if anything, from the greatest economic collapse in over 70 years.