Affordable Housing in the United States

Gaze upon the Helliers’ half-built house in Bristol, Vermont, and you might think you’re looking at an ordinary home construction project. Table saws, building materials, and piles of earth lie around the newly framed dwelling, while a crew of carpenters mills around the site, dressed for warmth in the chilly fall air. But look closer, and some unique features emerge. The exterior frame is wrapped in an outer layer of heat-trapping insulation. Sunshine streams in through large, south-facing windows, flooding the interior living spaces with light. Once the house is completed, solar panels will supply the family’s hot water and much of its electrical power. And indoor finishes, paints, rugs, and fabrics will be nontoxic. In short, the Helliers’ house is being built to be green. And that puts it in good company; new green homes jumped in number by 30% between 2005 and 2006 and could include up to 5% of the entire U.S. housing market within five years, predicts McGraw-Hill Construction, an industry information provider, in its June 2006 Residential Green Building SmartMarket Report. That makes green homes bright spots in an otherwise dismal housing market facing its worst slump in decades. To everyone’s benefit, green homes link sustainable materials and practices with better human and environmental health. “You’re really looking at a tripod of components,” says David Johnston, president of green building consultancy What’s Working and author of Green from the Ground Up, a forthcoming book on sustainable residential design. “First, energy efficiency has to be above minimal code requirements for your climate. The second component has to do with improved water and resource efficiency, and the third concerns indoor air quality. If your design doesn’t address all three of these issues, then you don’t have a green home.” According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Air and Radiation, indoor air is typically 2–5 times more polluted than outdoor air, owing to the presence of asthma-inducing agents such as mold and toxic chemicals in carpets, paints, and other synthetic materials. In fact, the EPA ranks indoor air as one of the top five human health risks, says agency spokesperson Dave Ryan. By requiring nontoxic materials, green designs limit indoor exposure to carcinogens such as formaldehyde in manufactured wood products including sheathing and particleboard, and to volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in finishes. Home energy uses also contribute to global warming. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) in Washington, DC, estimates that domestic power demands account for 21% of all the greenhouse gases emitted in the United States. The construction industry as a whole accounts for 48% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, according to advocacy group Architecture 2030. And by optimizing insulation, green designs save on oil and gas bills, which are (quite literally in poorly insulated homes) going through the roof. But even as green homes gain in popularity, they’re also dogged by a sticky association with the rich, seen by many as too pricey for ordinary buyers. Indeed, McGraw-Hill Construction identified cost perceptions as a top obstacle to green building among homeowners and builders alike. Fueling that preoccupation with cost is a media obsession with “eco-mansions,” laments Charles Lockwood, a green building consultant in Los Angeles and New York. “Most of what you see in the press would leave you thinking you’d have to live in Malibu or Aspen to afford one of these places,” he says. To wit: the Maine Sunday Telegram in Portland ran a feature on 4 November 2007 titled “Unaffordably Green?” about a $1 million ultra-green home in nearby Freeport that was unsold after a year on the market. Christopher Briley, an architect with Green Design Studio in Yarmouth, Maine, concedes that most people who build their own houses have above-average incomes (McGraw-Hill Construction’s SmartMarket Report shows that nearly two-thirds of those who buy green homes make more than $50,000 a year). And buyers with more money to spend, Briley says, are apt to mix green design elements in with a host of other more expensive features—radiant floors and granite countertops, for instance—that skew costs higher. “A lot of these houses are going to be expensive anyway,” he says. “But that doesn’t mean you can’t have an affordable green house. It’s all about where you decide to spend your money.”

The question of how to build decent housing that is affordable to lower income households has challenged policymakers in the United States for decades. In response, the federal government has developed a variety of partnership approaches that involve private for-profit developers. Although these entities are currently the major producers of affordable housing in the United States, they have received relatively little attention from the academic and policy communities. This inquiry is aimed at filing a small portion of this gap by presenting a qualitative case study of one of the country’s leading for-profit developers that has a longstanding commitment to affordable housing, McCormack Baron Salazar. Using a modified version of the quadruple bottom line framework as the starting point, this exploration discusses the complexity and challenges facing the affordable housing sector and offers programmatic and policy recommendations that are applicable to both for-profit and nonprofit developers. In view of the results of the 2016 presidential election, and the likely continued retreat by the federal government from supporting affordable housing, the need to better understand, and form productive working alliances and collaborations with, private for-profit affordable housing developers is more compelling than ever.

Real estate investment trusts (REITs), spread from the United States since the 1960s, gathered momentum following the global financial crisis. In South Africa, REITs have operated since 2013, with only a few of the 27 REITS focused on residential investments. Although the four REITs with substantial residential portfolios, largely in “affordable housing”, meet a critical need in South Africa’s unequal housing landscape, it is crucial to examine the practices and effects of these apparently new actors. In conversation with a growing critical literature on the financialization of rental housing through REITS in cities around the world, we investigate how South African REITs with significant residential portfolios reflect the trends characterizing REITs globally but with contextual specificities. Our exploratory, spatio-temporally attuned analysis of these firms’ histories, ownership, performance and geographies reveals how South African affordable rental housing financialization is largely embedded within local capital markets with established local institutional investors and real estate actors that share longer histories of investment in affordable housing. These agents’ capacities and limits are critically shaped by national political-economic conditions, municipal service provision and historically produced built environments. Attention to such historical, place-based and multi-scalar relations are key in understanding REITs’ diverse trajectories across context.

The frequency of coastal floods around the United States has risen sharply over the last few decades, and rising seas point to further future acceleration. Residents of low-lying affordable housing, who tend to be low-income persons living in old and poor quality structures, are especially vulnerable. To elucidate the equity implications of sea level rise (SLR), we provide the first nationwide assessment of recent and future risks to affordable housing from SLR and coastal flooding in the United States. By using high-resolution building footprints and probability distributions for both local flood heights and SLR, we identify the coastal states and cities where affordable housing—both subsidized and market-driven—is most at risk of flooding. We provide estimates of both the expected number of affordable housing units exposed to extreme coastal water levels and of how often those units may be at risk of flooding. The number of affordable units exposed in the United States is projected to more than triple by 2050. New Jersey, New York, and Massachusetts have the largest number of units exposed to extreme water levels both in absolute terms and as a share of their affordable housing stock. Some top-ranked cities could experience numerous coastal floods reaching higher than affordable housing sites each year. As the top 20 cities account for 75% of overall exposure, limited, strategic and city-level efforts may be able to address most of the challenge of preserving coastal-area affordable housing stock.

As rents have risen and wages have not kept pace, housing affordability in the United States has declined over the last 15 years, impacting the housing and living arrangements of low-income families. Housing subsidies improve the housing situations of low-income families, but less than one in four eligible families receive a voucher. In this article, we analyze whether one of the largest anti-poverty programs in the United States-the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)-affects the housing (eviction, homelessness, and affordability) and living arrangements (doubling up, number of people in the household, and crowding) of low-income families. Using the Current Population Survey, the American Community Survey/decennial census, and the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, we employ a parameterized difference-in-differences strategy to examine whether policy-induced expansions to the EITC affect the housing and living arrangements of single mothers. Results suggest that a $1,000 increase in the EITC improves housing by reducing housing cost burdens, but it has no effect on eviction or homelessness. Increases in the EITC also reduce doubling up (living with additional, nonnuclear family adults)-in particular, doubling up in someone else's home-and reduce three-generation/multigenerational coresidence, suggesting that mothers have a preference to live independently. We find weak evidence for a reduction in overall household size, yet the EITC does reduce household crowding. Although the EITC is not an explicit housing policy, expansions to the EITC are generally linked with improved housing outcomes for single mothers and their children.

Persistent disparities in affordable rental housing among America's ethnoracial groups

Toward suburbs: Examining neighborhood-level changes in naturally occurring affordable housing stock in Florida, USA

The purpose of this master thesis is to analyze the problems of the United States of America’s health care system by 2010 and to highlight the need for reform. An additional purpose of this paper is to analyze the aims and the provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as well as its impact on insurance, affordable health care, containment of health expenditure and the quality of provided health care. The methodology that will be followed will be the review of Greek and foreign language literature as well as reports from international organizations such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the World Health Organization. In the first chapter we describe the aims and forms of the various health systems, and we analyze the health systems of five economically developed countries, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany and the Netherlands. In the second chapter we present the United States of America’s health system, as well as its problems that have necessitated reform, such as the problem of the uninsured, the high health care expenditures, the medical errors and the poor performance on indicators in relation to other OECD countries. In the third chapter we present previous efforts for health system reform at federal and state level and the aims and provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as well as its impact on insurance, health expenditures and the quality of provided health care. In the last chapter we present the conclusions of this thesis.

A comparison of building system parameters between affordable and market-rate housing in New York City

This research makes the argument for increasing private sector participation in affordable housing development in the City of Toronto. It explores the demand for affordable rental housing in Toronto, examines the national, provincial and municipal legislative situation affecting Toronto and demonstrates the potential for the municipality of Toronto to update and implement policies to produce more affordable housing with private sector developers. Policies used across Canada and the United States to encourage or require affordable housing contributions from private sector developers are explored and case studies of Vancouver, Montreal and San Francisco highlight how municipalities facing similar housing pressures have attempted to address their situations. Interviews with key stakeholders contributed Toronto-specific ideas regarding private sector involvement in the construction of affordable rental housing as well as the accompanying policies that have potential in Toronto. Actions and policies are recommended for the consideration of the Toronto municipal government.

This research makes the argument for increasing private sector participation in affordable housing development in the City of Toronto. It explores the demand for affordable rental housing in Toronto, examines the national, provincial and municipal legislative situation affecting Toronto and demonstrates the potential for the municipality of Toronto to update and implement policies to produce more affordable housing with private sector developers. Policies used across Canada and the United States to encourage or require affordable housing contributions from private sector developers are explored and case studies of Vancouver, Montreal and San Francisco highlight how municipalities facing similar housing pressures have attempted to address their situations. Interviews with key stakeholders contributed Toronto-specific ideas regarding private sector involvement in the construction of affordable rental housing as well as the accompanying policies that have potential in Toronto. Actions and policies are recommended for the consideration of the Toronto municipal government.

This thesis examines the possibility of establishing an affordable housing Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) in major Chinese cities in order to address the financial problem faced by the country’s affordable housing sector. This thesis builds, for the first time, a robust link between the affordable housing sector and REITs in China based on real world scenarios. The link is supported by real data from the affordable housing sector of Nanjing, as well as well-established international practices from Hong Kong and the United States. In order to establish the link between the affordable housing sector and REITs in China, this thesis uses qualitative methods to address three guiding questions: 1) how affordable housing is financed in Nanjing, what the current problems are in this financing system, and why REITs might be useful; 2) if REITs are useful and necessary in China, what insights can be learned from overseas affordable housing REITs and 3) how an affordable housing REIT can be established in Nanjing based on the Hong Kong and US models and experiences, and what barriers currently exist that prevent Chinese REITs from being created in the affordable housing sector. This thesis finds that current affordable housing finance in China heavily relies on government borrowings, and public rental housing serves as a source of governmental financial burden as this form of housing cannot be sold to repay the debt. Thus, the Chinese government has considered the vehicle of REITs as the best option to liquidate the existing stock and free resources to fund further investment and repay the debt. In addition, overseas insights suggest that the Hong Kong model could provide the strategic framework, while the US model can provide specific tactics to be adopted in the proposed Chinese REIT in order to avoid some of the difficulties experienced in Hong Kong. This thesis ultimately suggests that a purely affordable housing REIT (containing housing only) would be impossible to establish in Nanjing, or in similar major cities, under current conditions. However, an REIT holding commercial real estate within affordable housing estates would be a workable solution to the affordable housing sector, although it would face barriers of law, taxation and a lack of skilled workers.

Throughout the United States, low-income families are having an increasingly difficult time finding an affordable place to live. Due to high rents, static incomes, and a shortage of housing, local communities, particularly in urban areas, are struggling to fight off this wave of decline and displacement. Currently in the U.S., an estimated 12 million families are now spending more than half of their income on rent. According to Federal Guidelines, “[f]amilies who pay more than 30 percent of their income for housing are considered cost burdened and may have difficulty affording necessities such as food, clothing, transportation, and medical care.”A large reason for this overspending by low-income families is that the supply of affordable housing is shrinking. Landlords and tenants both are adding to the affordable housing problem as “all sides are being squeezed.” Today, most new construction on rental housing is for the high-end market, “not for low and middle-income families.” So while the problem is clear, the cause of the problem is anything but.This note seeks a better understanding of the current housing problems plaguing local communities around the United States. Whether it is attributable to a crisis of societal construction or a shortage in the supply of affordable housing, this note attempts to reconcile current legal scholarship on local government initiatives, and economic free market solutions to lower barriers.Part I of this note examines the historical background of government initiatives to promote local development primarily through the mechanism of eminent domain. Frequently one of the first tools pulled out of the local government toolkit, eminent domain has evolved over the past century along with a shroud of controversy over its use. Part II details the current problems associated with local governments’ use of eminent domain, particularly regarding its effectiveness (or lack thereof) in accomplishing the government’s intended policy. Part III observes many of the other incentives local governments are using beyond eminent domain and examines their effectiveness in redeveloping their communities for all classes of residents.Part IV reviews current proposals of legal and government-side solutions including “inclusionary” eminent domain, Community Benefits Agreements (CBAs), and Community Development Corporations (CDCs). Part V then proposes alternatives to these regulatory proposals through market-oriented solutions based on increasing the overall supply in the market through deregulation of the zoning and permitting process. Exploring case studies in: Durham, North Carolina: Atlanta, Georgia: and Anaheim, California, this note will make the case that the solution to creating more affordable housing can be found in a reconciliation of both the legal/government and market-based proposals. Part VI offers this reconciliation and provides a comparative study of a proposal first implemented in Rotterdam, Netherlands, and its potential application to local governments in the United States. Lastly, I will conclude this note by describing how local governments should help alleviate the affordable housing problem in light of the reconciliation of government and market-based solutions.

This paper considers the history of affordable housing in the Unites States, and discusses the further leadership role that state and local governments can play in meeting the affordable housing needs of communities by using their authority to implement effective and creative land use planning and zoning techniques, especially in the light of the current economic situation. State-level approaches to addressing affordable housing are considered and the paper outlines innovative solutions that may be offered by local governments through the implementation of available land use and community development tools to quickly respond to the immediate affordable housing problems facing America. Although meeting the affordable housing needs of all Americans requires cooperation and collaboration between all levels of government, local governments may be particularly poised to quickly respond to the immediate community-based housing challenges through their ability to engage in community planning and to enact zoning and other land use controls to implement these community-based plans. The paper also shows how existing dynamic land use regulatory techniques can be used to a great extent today by municipalities in the United States to promote affordable housing, even without direct municipal spending.

Housing owned by nonprofit housing organizations comprises one of the two components of the U.S.’s social housing sector, the other being public housing. After providing relevant background about affordable rental housing programs in the United States (including federal, state, and local strategies); the overall size of the U.S. social housing sector; and the level of direct and indirect subsidies for housing, the article focuses on the key challenges facing the nonprofit housing sector. Details also are provided about the difficulties involved in navigating the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program for both nonprofit and for-profit developers. The final section offers suggestions for how nonprofits could be better supported through a series of ‘nonprofit-centric’ public policies and programs. Despite the ongoing need for more federal involvement in affordable housing, and the important role that nonprofit housing organizations are able to play, the current political situation in the United States means that an expanded federally supported affordable housing agenda is highly unlikely in the foreseeable future.