Bittersweet Lane: Creating Home(s) in the American Affordable Housing Crisis

The Bitter Reality. The Sweet Solutions. The Lane Forward.

Housing dominates headlines, yet few truly understand how affordable housing works—or why it’s failing. Bittersweet Lane is the first book to demystify America’s housing crisis from both a professional and deeply personal perspective.

Written by a community development professional with expertise in housing development and public policy, Madden blends gripping memoir with sharp policy insights to expose the brutal history of housing in the U.S.—and the tools we already have to fix it. Spanning from Ireland to America, from the Bittersweet Lane Apartments to M.I.T., Bittersweet Lane also carries the stories and deep scars of intergenerational poverty while offering a bold vision for change.

A raw, eye-opening journey through class, race, and urban development, Bittersweet Lane offers:

• A class-crossing insider’s perspective from housing insecurity to shaping policy.
• A clear breakdown of affordable housing without the jargon.
• Real solutions to the crisis and why we haven’t implemented them.

Though the barriers to housing justice seem insurmountable, the solutions are within reach. Bittersweet Lane doesn’t just explain the crisis—it shows how we can all find home.