The place-based impact of housing policy and practices

Abstract

Rooted in urban sociology, the concept of political economy of place suggests that placed-based policies influence social inequalities, and when applied in criminology, it predicts that these inequalities influence neighborhood crime. Housing policy in the Unites States provides several seminal examples linking policies and disparities, including redlining and blockbusting, and a current spate of literature links housing practices with neighborhood crime. Present-day housing policies and practices may have greater nuance in promoting, or reducing, social inequalities, but they nonetheless have consequences for communities, including affecting neighborhood crime. Framed by the idea of political economy of place, this study examines the ways that neighborhood crime may be influenced by three distinct areas of housing policy and practices: the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), the low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC), and eviction. This study merges the National Neighborhood Crime Study 2 (NNCS2), which is a multicity dataset that uniquely combines tract-level crime rates with demographic data, two multicity housing-related datasets, and one local-level dataset. A multicity analysis examines patterns across a large number of neighborhoods, while a Boston-based single-city analysis integrates the role of social processes. Results demonstrate that LIHTC, a well-intentioned housing policy, and eviction, a disruptive housing practice, are associated with an increase in both violent and nonviolent crime, and findings offer some evidence that housing practices influence social processes. As well, study results indicate that housing policies and practices are concentrated in some communities, potentially deepening social inequalities in disadvantaged communities of color. In the case of the Boston eviction analysis, eviction is so entangled with race and disadvantage that the concentration of eviction within poor communities of color helps explain the level of neighborhood violent crime. The study concludes with a series of recommendations for future research and policy implications. Future studies may develop the research examining housing policy and practices and crime by examining new areas, such as community land trusts, as well as expand into new fields of policy, including labor and education. Policy implications include recommendations to strengthen the CRA, revise the administration of the LIHTC, and adopt new policies to reduce likelihood of eviction.--Author's abstract