Catherine Bauer changed forever the concept of social housing and inspired a generation of urban activists to integrate public housing into the emerging welfare state of the mid-20th century. She was one of a small group of idealists who called themselves “Housers” because of their commitment to raising the quality of urban life through improving shelter for low-income families.

The story of her life and achievement is full of famous names in art and architecture.  Her visionary teachings about the need for housing for the poor and disadvantaged, and the symbiotic relationship between good housing and a healthy society, remain as relevant as ever.

H. Peter Oberlander's profile page

Eva M. Newbrun's profile page

H. Peter Oberlander is Professor Emeritus of Community and Regional Planning at UBC and founder of the UBC Centre for Human Settlements. Eva M. Newbrun first became interested in housing issues as a social care worker. She lives in San Francisco and has been writing professionally for the past twenty-five years.

Peter Oberlander and Eva Newbrun have traced her career in meticulous detail and written a highly readable account of her life and times. Ostensibly a biography of Catherine, their book is simultaneously a biography of the Housing Movement that she helped to spawn and of the early City Planning Movement in which she was an active participant.

Berkeley Planning Journal 14 (2000): 138-140

Houser is a well-researched and well-written biography of this talented woman.

CBRA 2093