Availability Of Affordable Housing Research Articles

A response framework for addressing the risks of climate change for homeless populations

ABSTRACT People experiencing homeless have greater vulnerabilities in relation to climate change that require a range of policy and systems approaches. There are two interrelated areas that policymakers can consider in relation to climate change and homelessness: migration and exposure. This synthesis of the available data and expert opinion provides practical information to policymakers, with specific strategies alongside case examples. The data captured here is through systematic reviews, and expert opinion is generated through input from a year-long series of five virtual think tanks. Throughout this synthesis paper, an emphasis is placed on explicitly addressing homeless populations in the policies and plans designed to address climate change-related impacts. Prevention-oriented plans are shown to be more effective in terms of outcomes and cost-effectiveness compared to the more commonly deployed crisis response models. Another key issue considered is the availability of relevant data with which to target policy responses and evaluate outcomes. Data-driven responses tend to be more successful, though relevant data are, to date, lacking for homeless and other marginalized populations. Moreover, effective policy design in this area needs to be intersectional and inclusive, tailored to the needs of local communities and developed in consultation with lived experience stakeholders, including service providers. Policies that ignore local input tend to fail. Prevention-oriented, culturally-situated, and trauma-informed systems and services hold the greatest promise in responding to the severe health risks and inequities that homeless populations face in the climate crisis. Key policy insights Prevention-oriented measures are key, with most focussing on the availability of affordable housing and upgrading housing and living conditions of vulnerable populations. There is a need to include lived experience and input from local communities, especially when designing measures that will impact livelihoods, such as planned migration. Disaster, crisis response, and aftercare plans need to outline explicit measures for homeless populations. There is a need for cross-sectoral alignment of policy and intervention responses. Successful approaches tend to be culturally-situated and trauma-informed.

Commute distance and jobs-housing fit

Anecdotal evidence suggests that the affordable housing crisis is forcing households to seek lower cost housing in the outer reaches of major metropolitan areas, helping to explain recent increases in commute distance. To test this relationship, we use spatial regression to examine the relationship between the availability of affordable housing in close proximity to jobs (jobs-housing fit) and commute distance in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The analysis draws on 2015 Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics (LEHD) Origin–Destination Employment Statistics (LODES) by workplace supplemented with data from the 2013–2017 5-Year American Community Survey on affordable housing units. We find substantial variation in jobs-housing fit across Los Angeles neighborhoods. The imbalance is greatest in higher-income neighborhoods located along the coast and in Orange County, south of Los Angeles. Controlling for other determinants of commute distance, a higher ratio of jobs to affordable housing is associated with longer distance commutes. To address growing commute distances, policymakers must greatly expand and protect the supply of long-term rental housing particularly in job-rich neighborhoods.

Effectiveness of supported housing versus residential care in severe mental illness: a multicenter, quasi-experimental study

PurposeUp to now there are only few studies and no RCT comparing efficacy or effectiveness of supported housing (SH) versus residential care (RC) in severe mental illness (SMI) without homelessness. Here we present an observational follow-up study in SMI subjects, who entered SH or RC, to compare clinical and functional outcomes 2 years later.MethodsIn this prospective study in more than 30 locations throughout a German federal state, we included SMI subjects, who entered SH (n = 153) or RC (n = 104). About one quarter suffered from each substance use, psychotic, affective, or other disorders. To avoid sampling bias, we used the propensity score matching method to establish a quasi-experimental design. Outcome measures were social functioning (SFS), the number of psychiatric hospitalisations, psychopathology (SCL-9-K), and quality of life (MANSA). Apart from descriptive methods we analysed primarily using repeated-measures ANOVAS.ResultsOur analyses revealed significant effects of time for all outcomes in both study groups. However, there were not any group differences of outcome measures, i.e., not any significant effects of group or interactional effects of group x time. Moreover, these results hold true for intent-to-treat and per-protocol sample analyses.ConclusionThe results show, that SH and RC for non-homeless people with SMI achieve the same clinical and psychosocial outcomes across a 2-year period. Taking into account the users’ preferences, the present findings should give reason to ensure the availability of affordable housing and to support the expansion of supported housing approaches.

Perceptions of Hochelaga-Maisonneuve Neighborhood in Montreal: a Textual Analysis of Written Medias.

A number of authors have documented increased diversification and gentrification in a variety of central city neighborhoods. In Montreal, Hochelaga-Maisonneuve is among those with the highest rates of gentrification in the past few decades, creating new social dynamics and often generating socio-territorial conflicts.
 What is the significance of social changes for the population of Hochelaga-Maisonneuve? What role does recent immigration play in the mitigation or development of social conflict? In this paper we present the results of the analysis of 1 420 articles taken from the six principal daily newspapers published in Montreal.
 In our target neighborhood, it would appear that the higher socio-economic status of the newcomers is more disruptive than their ethnocultural background because it is associated with a change in the way people live, shop and interact in public space. The data also reveal disruptive effects on the availability of affordable housing, a feature that means increasing displacement of lower income populations.

The impact of land use regulation across the conditional distribution of home prices: an application of quantile regression for group-level treatments

By increasing housing prices, land use regulations can have positive impacts among homeowners, but they can also have negative impacts on the availability of affordable housing. We examined heterogeneity in the price impacts of land use regulation across the conditional house price distribution; this heterogeneity may ameliorate or exacerbate the impacts of land use regulation on affordable housing. Our results suggest that the distribution of price impacts across the conditional house price distribution is relatively uniform. Results suggest that land use regulations both constrain housing supply and induce within housing market migration that spreads price impacts throughout the region.

Female perspectives on housing quality and household characteristics, perceptions and challenges: Evidence from Australia

In many societies, perceptions regarding housing and ownership rights is that it is mostly consigned to males rather than females. Housing is gendered around physical aspects, as a financial asset, and even in housing data to be a male preserve – excluding females and their perceptions. This important paper addresses this limitation in the literature by examining the views and perceptions of female participants in the Australian Housing Conditions dataset. More specifically this paper examines the significance of household structure, housing quality and characteristics of Australian woman and how it affects their financial strain. As a further dimension this paper also examines differences in women’s housing experience by age as older Australian women (above 65 years) have a higher likelihood to revert to substandard housing conditions and homelessness than younger Australian women (under 65 years). Logistic regression analysis shows a higher tendency towards financial strain in women under 65 years, those with either poor physical or mental health and those who were single or lone parents. These finding propose that women under 65 are at greater risk to experience household financial strain and poorer housing security. The paper argues that these results present challenges for Australian housing policy through increasing housing affordability. The analysis suggests that an increase in the availability of affordable housing will ease the financial strain and improve the mental health of Australian women. Moreover, an increase in the flexibility of housing arrangements may prove to be beneficial in providing additional housing solutions.

Supporting Dynamic Economic Adjustment

Executive SummaryEconomic policymaking in the UK has historically focussed more on the demand side than on the supply side of the economy. Yet it is on the supply side – the way in which an economy adapts to change while growing productive capacity on a sustainable basis – that medium- to long-term economic performance largely depends. There is an urgent need now to rebalance policy by focussing, in particular, on measures to enhance labour-force productivity, including radically enhanced support for training and skills development.This does not involve wholesale structural reform of the economic framework. The UK benefits from having one of the most flexible economies in the OECD, with competitive product markets, relatively low labour costs and historically high employment levels, accompanied by a so-far-successful adoption of an escalating minimum wage. We suggest that in the post-Brexit era politicians would do well to avoid changes in the regulatory regime that would create undue misalignments with EU standards. Nevertheless, the concomitants of the UK's form of flexibility are a dismal performance on productivity and stagnating living standards. Productivity is now actually falling quarter on quarter ten years after the last economic downturn – a position unprecedented in the past 250 years. This problem must be addressed if the UK is to progress towards fulfilling its economic potential.Central to this are both so-called Active Labour Market Policies (ALMPs) to provide people who have become unemployed with new skills that help them remain in the workforce, and investments in effective upskilling of mid-career and older workers. ALMPs can help raise average per capita income over time, yet UK spending on this area is well under half the OECD average and a fraction of the sums spent in the more successful Nordic economies, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Australia. The UK's many attempts to develop new training and apprenticeship schemes in recent decades have been dogged by poor quality and a lack of support from employers and labour unions. This needs to change: we propose a concerted effort to raise UK spending on ALMPs to the OECD average, especially for 16–24 year-olds. Improving labour-force mobility – for example by radically improving availability of affordable housing – is also critical. Structural reforms of this kind will require sustained political effort and support.

English

This study evaluated the different constraints of affordable housing and the different strategies employed by cooperative housing societies in tertiary institutions in Lagos State to ameliorate these constraints. Data for the study were obtained from both primary and secondary sources. A set of questionnaire were designed. The questionnaire targeted the executives of the cooperative societies in the tertiary institutions in Lagos state and was administered using simple random sampling technique on executives of the cooperative societies in the tertiary institutions. A total of 50 executives of cooperative societies in the tertiary institutions in Lagos state were selected for questionnaire administration. Information were obtained on respondents’ profile, type of cooperative societies, activities of the cooperative societies, methods of housing provision and the challenges faced by the cooperative societies in housing provision. Information was obtained from secondary data including: journals, publications and internet materials.  Descriptive and inferential statistical techniques of data analysis were employed. Results revealed that the provision of general loans, provision of housing construction loan for members, provision of specific loans for the purchase of land, provision of special loans for renovation of existing buildings and collective purchase of land for building construction were the most dominant strategies adopted by the cooperative societies in the provision of affordable housing for their members in the study area. Result also revealed that cost of materials of construction and unnecessary bureaucracy were the most significant constraints to affordable housing provision by the cooperative societies in the study area. The study concluded that non availability of affordable housing is an issue across the state irrespective of the class and people with the low income earners facing the problem the most. The study recommended that dedicated recurrent funding by the government could systematically address the issue.  Key words: Affordable housing, cooperative societies, housing, housing constraint, Lagos State, tertiary institutions.

Family Shelter Entry and Re-entry During the Recession in Hennepin County: The Role of Race, Residential Location, and Family Earnings

This article examines the extent to which shelter entry and re-entry increased during the Great Recession (December 2007–December 2009) in Hennepin County, Minnesota. Among successive cohorts of families entering the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP), Black families were 23% more likely to enter shelter if they were in the 2008–2009 cohort and 28% more likely to enter shelter if they were in the 2010 cohort than if they entered SNAP in 2004–2005. In addition, families who left shelter in 2009 were 39% more likely and families leaving shelter in 2010 were 63% more likely to re-enter shelter than those leaving shelter in 2004–2006. Only a small part of the increases in shelter entry and shelter re-entry was explained by reductions in family earnings. This suggests that the increases in shelter entry and re-entry may have been caused by other factors, such as the decline in the availability of affordable housing.

Housing vouchers as a means of poverty deconcentration and race desegregation: Patterns and factors of voucher recipients’ spatial concentration in Cleveland

Housing Choice Voucher Program is the single largest housing subsidy program in the USA with the goal of poverty deconcentration and race desegregation. This study aims to identify the presence and locations of voucher holders’ spatial concentration, and to investigate the factors associated with the location outcomes of voucher recipients in Cleveland from 2005 to 2009. Hotspot analysis indicated that voucher holders have clustered together and their concentrations have changed during the five years. Over time, concentration patterns spread out from the central city to suburbs. Spatial concentrations were significantly different by race. Regression analysis identified several factors associated with voucher recipients’ concentration, including race, availability of affordable housing, poverty rates, vacancy rates, and accessibility to public transportation. The spatial error model estimation and Geographically Weighted Regression account for spatial autocorrelation and spatial heterogeneity. Results from the study presented the limited potential of the voucher program since voucher holders are still clustered in specific neighborhoods, even though they tend to move in less poor neighborhoods over time.

Road to Community Sustainability: Development of Community-based Housing for Rural Elderly

Community-based housing is widely recognized as one unique mode of affordable housing provision discussed in the agenda of urban housing policy in the midst of global economy. While economic development of rural communities are severely blocked by many factors, the local housing needs at grass roots level are addressed in the response to the growing number of the elderly and shortage of adequate housing to accommodate the group, and the availability of affordable housing is primarily seen as a viable option to the sustainability of rural community. This research study is to examine the case study of community-based housing development in rural areas, and to explore the drives and hurdles that influence the success of each development. The on-site visits and in-depth interviews with community leaders were employed to meet the research goals. The findings show that the driving factors making the successful housing development include the firm commitment to the importance of affordable and adequate housing, strong leadership of community leaders, public support, well-advised dispersion of public resources and strong bond between the public sector and local people. In spite of all the contributing factors, the unfamiliarity of collective ownership is the leading hurdle to proceed the development in a timely manner.

Housing, income support and mental health: Points of disconnection

There exists a disconnection between evolving policies in the policy arenas of mental health, housing, and income support in Canada. One of the complexities associated with analysing the intersection of these policies is that federal, provincial, and municipal level policies are involved. Canada is one of the few developed countries without a national mental health policy and because of the federal policy reforms of the 1970s, the provincial governments now oversee the process of deinstitutionalization from the hospital to the community level. During this same period the availability of affordable housing has decreased as responsibility for social housing has been transfered from the federal government to the provincial and/or municipal levels of government. Canada also stands alone in terms of being a developed nation without national housing policy instead what is considered "affordable" housing is partially dependant upon individuals' personal economic resources. As well, over the past decade rates of income supports have also been reduced. Psychiatric survivors have long been identified as being at risk for homelessness, with the disconnection existing between housing, income and mental health policies and the lack of a national policy in any of these policies areas further contributing to this risk.

Deconcentrating Poverty through Homebuyer Finance Programs

ABSTRACT:The federal government attempts to reduce the spatial concentration of the poor through the implementation of its many housing initiatives, guiding recipients toward economically integrated neighborhoods. Merging HMDA, GSE, and Census 2000 data, this analysis assesses the extent to which the government’s homebuyer finance programs have accomplished the deconcentration of the poor. The research finds that the expected benefits of various forms of housing assistance have not fully materialized. The efforts to help very low-income homebuyers are helping these households move into economically integrated neighborhoods but the movement toward this economic integration, especially by racial and ethnic minorities, has fallen short of distributing these households in a manner that parallels the availability of affordable housing in the market.

Supportive Housing Initiatives in Arkansas

Arkansas has a significant need for improving the availability of affordable housing with access to supportive services for its large population of elderly and persons with disabilities. Factors that contribute to this need are the high level of poverty, general poor health, low employment rate for persons with disabilities, and the geographic and social isolation problems typical of a rural State.

Teaching Democracy: What Schools Need to Do

Mr. Kahne and Mr. Westheimer studied 10 educational programs whose objective -- to develop democratic citizens -- is largely ignored by school reform policy. Schools can fulfill this mission, they discovered, through specific strategies that promote civic commitments, capacities, and connections. WHICH OF THE following headlines never appeared in a daily newspaper? a. Capital City Students Show No Gain in Reading, Math -- Governor Threatens Takeover b. Middletown Schools to Be Taken Over by State for Failure to Develop Democratic Citizens If you answered b, you not only answered correctly, your response also reflected an important challenge facing our democracy today. While we say that we value a democratic society, the very institutions expected to prepare democratic citizens -- our schools -- have moved far from this central mission. There is now frequent talk of state takeovers of schools that fail to raise test scores in math or reading, but it is unimaginable that any school would face such an action because it failed to prepare its graduates for democratic citizenship. The headlines we read are about test scores, basic skills, and the role schools play in preparing students for jobs in the Information Age. The vast bulk of school resources are going to literacy, mathematics, science, and vocational education. In 2003, for example, federal expenditures by the Department of Education on civic education totaled less than half of one percent of the overall department budget.1 And when it comes to assessment, civic goals get very little attention. The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act mandates yearly testing in math, reading, and, beginning in 2005, science. Social studies and civic education, the areas of the curriculum most tied to the democratic mission of schools, share no such requirements. Similarly, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), which is often referred to as the Nation's Report Card, measures performance in math and reading annually -- but administers a civics assessment only about once every 10 years. Clearly, math, reading, and science are important, but, from the standpoint of supporting a democratic society, academic subject matter, when disconnected from its social relevance, is insufficient. The same can be said of colleges and universities. Their commitments to democratic priorities are more rhetorical than substantive. We are concerned here with what is not being discussed in the newspapers. We are concerned that the great school debates of our time give short shrift to a fundamental principle that, for more than two centuries, informed efforts to advance the notion of public schooling. This article addresses an important gap in our education agenda: preparing students to be effective democratic citizens. For the past three years, we studied 10 educational programs, funded by the Surdna Foundation, that were unusual in that they put the challenge of educating for democratic citizenship at the center of their efforts.2 We studied 10th-graders evaluating a juvenile detention center, ninth-graders studying the feasibility of curbside recycling, and 11th-graders reporting to the public on the availability of affordable housing in their community. We examined programs that exposed university students to community development projects in Silicon Valley, brought theology majors to a reservation to study the history of Native American experience, and led students interested in social movements on an intensive journey through historical sites of the civil rights movement. We visited an adult education program with a 70-year history of working for social and economic change through education and democratic action. All in all, we interviewed dozens of instructors and students, administered more than 500 surveys, observed pedagogical practices, and examined portfolios of student work. These programs share an emphasis on helping students to identify and act on issues of importance to themselves and to society. …

Fair Share or Status Quo?

This article presents an analysis of the potential impact of a program of regional fair share housing in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area: the Livable Communities Act (LCA). The author argues that fair share programs can be judged by two standards: (1) the degree to which they meet current and projected needs for affordable housing and (2) the extent to which they redistribute affordable housing opportunities throughout a region. The analysis shows that the LCA fails on the first of these standards and only minimally meets the second. Should program goals be fully met by all of the participating communities, the LCA will result in a decrease in the relative availability of affordable housing by 12 percent compared to a continuation of the status quo. In addition, overall, the program will not result in significant redistribution of affordable housing opportunities within the region. Only among rental housing units, which make up only 17 percent of estimated future residential development, is there the potential for progress toward fair share redistribution.

Family Dynamics, Housing, and Recurring Homelessness Among Women in New York City Homeless Shelters

This study looks at two sets of women who stayed in New York City homeless shelters in 1992—one set as part of a family and the other set as individuals—and at factors associated with an increased risk of their experiencing repeat shelter stays. Descriptive statistics and event history analysis indicate that regardless of whether the women stay in shelters with their families or by themselves, various family dynamics are associated with particular vulnerability to subsequent shelter stays, especially when the women are part of “young” families, are in households with absent children, or disclose a history of domestic violence. Exits from a shelter stay to one's own housing, on the other hand, has the strongest association with avoiding repeat shelter stays. These results suggest that family dynamics and the availability of affordable housing are two important focuses for efforts to reduce the incidence of homelessness among women.

Legislative Support for Growth Management in the Rocky Mountains: An Exploration of Attitudes in Idaho

Rapid growth in the largely rural Western Mountain states has created many of the same concerns that have led to support for managed growth in other areas of the country. However, the literature exploring support for growth management has focused mostly on urban and suburban areas. This paper begins to build a more rural-based framework for understanding the support for growth management, by presenting the results of a survey of state legislators in one of the rapidly growing Mountain states—Idaho. Analysis of two sets of independent variables investigates whether legislative support for growth management is driven more by objective factors such as actual changing demographics, or by perceptual factors such as quality of life ratings. The results indicate that both objective characteristics—growth rate and region of residence—and perceptual factors—the level of concern about such problems as water pollution and the availability of affordable housing—are important predictors of legislative support for growth management in Idaho. Prospects for managed growth in Idaho and other states in the dynamic, rapidly growing Mountain region are discussed in the light of these findings, and with respect to the unique political culture in Idaho and in the Mountain states region generally.

Barriers to Home Purchase for African-Americans and Hispanics in Syracuse

African-Americans and Hispanics in Syracuse, New York, have lower homeownership rates than whites with comparable incomes, despite the availability of affordable housing. Using ethnographic methods, the study team examined home purchase by Hispanics and African-Americans as a multiphase process. Very few of the more than 100 households interviewed by telephone and in person had home-purchase experiences that paralleled the conventional process. They generally found homes through word of mouth rather than Realtors, and many encountered obstacles to finding, purchasing, and financing homes. Alternatives to conventional financing were relatively common, especially after 1975, and portfolio lending became increasingly important for African-American homebuyers. Barriers to homeownership included employment uncertainty, lack of understanding about the homebuying process, strict credit requirements, and cultural misunderstandings. African-Americans and Hispanics in Syracuse have a lower rate of homeownership than whites, despite a relatively affordable housing market. In our efforts to understand why this is so, we began by examining the process of buying a house. We found that most members of the Syracuse housing industry, such as lenders, Realtors, appraisers, and attorneys, share an understanding of the “normal” stages in that process and of the components of a standard, low-risk mortgage loan. We use the term “cookie-cutter” to describe that process: Someone with sufficient income decides to buy a single-family home, saves enough for the downpayment, and finds the house through a Realtor or an advertisement. A Realtor helps to negotiate a market-rate price with the seller, the prospective buyer goes to a local lender for a mortgage, and the closing takes place 60 days later. This normative model seems to be based, perhaps unconsciously, on the experiences of middle-class white homebuyers. Using telephone and in-depth personal interviews with homeowners and renters, we also found that within our study population of a little more than 100 households, very few have had home-purchase experiences that match the “cookie-cutter” stereotype. AfricanAmericans and Hispanics interviewed most commonly found the homes they bought

A Canadian perspective on housing policy

Abstract In outlining the Canadian housing policy context for the remainder of the 1990s, this article highlights the largely exogenous influences that reflect the nature of the Canadian federation and the broader policy agenda of the federal government—notably deficit reduction and social policy reform. This policy environment is affected by macro factors including demographics, immigration, employment, the restructuring global economy, income trends, and increasing levels of dependence on government transfers. The article reviews recent trends in construction, social housing volumes, and the availability of affordable housing within the private stock. There appears to be a sufficient, albeit eroding, stock of affordable private housing that may be an important resource in a time of program spending reductions. To the extent that resources are largely in private and community hands, housing policy for the 1990s must adapt, with senior levels of government accepting a new role that is facilitative, enabling, and nurturing.