Sweat Equity: A Study of Housing Systems by and for the People in the United States and Cuba

Abstract

In their capacity as research assistants for this special issue of The Black Scholar, Gina Curtis and Elizabeth Oakes conducted the library research on housing in the United States on which this article is based. We met weekly throughout their period of research; and ideas exchanged in those sessions have clearly influenced the content of this article. Gail Reed provided invaluable assistance by conducting an interview with the staff of Centro de Estudio y Control del Desarrollo de la Vivienda, in Havana, and securing recent data on housing in Cuba. Because I was able to make change in response to criticisms and suggestions by Robert E. Cole, this article is a far stronger piece of work than I alone could have produced. I am profoundly grateful to these four co-workers.