Federal Housing Assistance Research Articles

Assessing Criminal History as a Predictor of Future Housing Success for Homeless Adults With Behavioral Health Disorders

Homeless adults with serious mental illnesses and chronic substance abuse problems have few housing options, a problem compounded when a criminal background is present. This study compared the criminal backgrounds and other characteristics of homeless individuals who succeeded in housing (retained housing continuously for two years) and those who failed in housing. The study population consisted of homeless adults with behavioral health disorders who moved into supportive housing between January 1, 2000, and June 30, 2004, regardless of criminal background. Data about criminal history and other characteristics were extracted from existing records and analyzed for associations with housing success. Chi square tests and logistic regression analysis were used to find characteristics predictive of subsequent housing success or failure. Data were available for 347 participants. Most (51%) had a criminal record, and 72% achieved housing success. The presence of a criminal background did not predict housing failure. Younger age at move-in, the presence of a substance abuse problem, and higher numbers of drug crimes and property crimes were separately associated with more housing failure; however, when they were adjusted for each of the other variables, only move-in age remained associated with the outcome. The finding that criminal history does not provide good predictive information about the potential for housing success is important because it contradicts the expectations of housing operators and policy makers. The findings suggest that policies and practices that keep homeless people with criminal records out of housing may be unnecessarily restrictive.

The New Indian Housing Act and Some of its Environmental Implications

In October 1996, the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act (NAHASDA) became law. The Act created a fundamental change in how American Indian Tribes and the federal government operated and funded housing assistance programs on Indian reservations. Such assistance was and still is drastically needed. Indian people live in third-world conditions on most reservations and safe, adequate, and sanitary housing is in very short supply. This Article dissects and analyzes the Act and also sets out the history of federal housing assistance to Indian reservations, which only began in 1961. Professor Miller worked with the Negotiated Rulemaking team under the Federal Advisory Committee Act that drafted NAHASDA's regulations and the Article discusses that process and the regulations that resulted. The authors also address the environmental implications of the Act and from expanding the housing supply on reservations.

Closing the gap between places of work and residence: The role of rental housing assistance in southern California

This article describes the geographic distribution of federal rental housing assistance in Southern California and investigates how the spatial relationship between subsidized rental housing and employment opportunities is related to the average income of subsidized tenants. Assisted households are concentrated in distressed neighborhoods and do not live in close proximity to most employment opportunities, especially lower‐skill jobs. Public housing and units benefiting from supply‐side subsidies to owners/investors (the Low‐Income Housing Tax Credit program and others) tend to be more concentrated than demand‐side support to tenants (Section 8 vouchers and certificates). Regression analyses that control for tenant and neighborhood characteristics indicate that the average income of subsidized tenants in a given tract is related to the type of rental subsidies received and the geographic access to jobs. Access to lower‐skill jobs is particularly important and ought to be systematically incorporated into the formation and evaluation of rental housing policy.

Recipients of housing assistance under welfare reform: Trends in employment and welfare participation

Between 1994 and 2001, the employment of low‐skilled single mothers increased dramatically and the welfare rolls shrank. Did these gains extend to single mothers who received federal housing assistance? This question is important because these women constitute a large, highly disadvantaged group and because housing assistance may work at cross‐purposes to welfare reform by fostering dependency on public support. The prospect of deep cuts in housing programs adds to the timeliness of this research. We find that employment increased as much for single mothers who received housing assistance as for those who did not. Although welfare participation appears to have declined somewhat less for single mothers getting housing assistance, this may be due to inadequate data. Demographic differences do not appear to matter. Gains from increased employment more than offset welfare losses, for an estimated annual net savings of approximately $265 million in government outlays for housing subsidies in 2001.

The impacts of welfare reform on recipients of housing assistance

This article uses data from randomized evaluations in Indiana and Delaware to address three questions: (1) Are welfare recipients who receive federal housing assistance less employable than recipients who do not? (2) How does the impact of welfare reform compare for families with and without housing assistance? (3) Does welfare reform increase or decrease the use of such assistance? Although public housing residents may be more disadvantaged than welfare recipients who do not get housing assistance, voucher users and Section 8 project‐based recipients were not. Welfare reform had similar impacts on the earnings and welfare benefits of families that received housing assistance and those that did not. Where impacts did differ, they were larger for families receiving assistance. Welfare reform also reduced the receipt of housing assistance. Families that receive assistance appear to have less financial strain than families that do not, suggesting that assistance may increase overall financial stability.

Housing statistics of the United States

The first comprehensive publication containing current and historical information on households, housing, housing finance, and federal housing assistance. Statistics include household characteristics, stock characteristics, housing production and investment, affordability, home mortgage lending and

Comment on Langley C. Keyes et al.’s “Networks and nonprofits: Opportunities and challenges in an era of federal devolution”

Abstract Housing markets are determined by a complex interplay of consumers and suppliers. The Keyes et al. article discusses the changing landscape for nonprofit housing providers and what recent developments in federal housing assistance policy will mean to them. But this perspective is too narrow to predict the effects of changes in federal housing policy because all housing providers are somewhat interrelated. All housing providers need to be considered, and using the terms “for‐profit” and “nonprofit” to distinguish between the two types of providers is unfortunate and misleading. For‐profits and nonprofits are fundamentally different: They place a different emphasis on community, and nonprofits can often deliver subsidies that for‐profits cannot. In addition, the strengths and the skills needed to produce housing under somewhat different objectives have led to some specialization. Ultimately, however, determining the optimal provider or mix of providers is best left to local and state governments as...

Potential Effects of Federal Policy Devolution on Local Housing Expenditures

As 1994 came to a close, the future of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the continued role of the federal government in low-income housing assistance was highly uncertain. The agency was targeted for elimination by congressional leaders, its budget was the object of recission attempts, and agency officials proposed a radical reinvention to alter housing programs and the delivery system for federal housing assistance. Given the likelihood of either more budget cuts (resulting in greater reliance on nonfederal sources offunds) or the devolution of policy responsibility through block grants, there is heightened concern for how local governments allocate housing funds. This article examines housing expenditure strategies of large U.S. cities. The analysis describes factors related to a greater use of nonfederal housing revenues by cities, and examines the impact offunding source on program and beneficiary targeting. The data suggest that reducedfederal spending or a shift to block grants is likely to result in more housing benefits directed to moderate-income households and to homeowners and homebuyers.

Housing tenure, structure, and crowding among Latino households

This article examines the effect of federal housing and public assistance programs on the housing quality of different Latino households. The research tests models of crowding and housing tenure and structure for Latino households. The data for this research are from the 1990 Latino National Political Survey-Panel Study of Income Dynamics (LNPS-PSID). Findings reveal that housing and public assistance programs do help alleviate crowding among the Latino population, but they do not help Latino households achieve ownership of a single-family home. All the demographic variables in the model contribute to the explanation of crowding, and a majority also significantly explain housing tenure and structure. Significant differences are found among Latino subgroups in the explanatory variables for crowding, tenure, and structure.

Targeting Housing Assistance

This article examines the current system for targeting federal rental housing assistance, a rationed program rather than an entitlement, to households with the greatest need. It describes the current systems for eligibility and for ranking households on waiting lists, and then analyzes relative needs for assistance among different groups of households. We conclude that the main policy objective should be to maintain the present system against the leakages that are starting to occur. We also recommend that assistance be targeted more heavily to families than at present and less to the elderly, and that nonelderly single persons be made fully eligible for assistance.

Using Fees and Taxes to Promote Affordable Housing

Abstract The inability of many low- and moderate-income families to locate decent shelter, combined with the decline in federal housing assistance during the 1980s, has placed the housing affordability issue high on the local government agenda. Using an affordability index varying by income level and household size and type, a recent study by the Economic Policy Institute indicates that nearly one-third of the nation is persistently “shelter poor.” See M. Stone, One-Third of a Nation: A New Look at Housing Affordability in America (1990). The problem is especially acute among renters and large families. The renter households paying 25 percent or more of their income on rent increased from 36.5 percent in 1970 to 57.5 percentin 1987, with 57 percent of those families withthree or more persons unable to meet nonshelter needs at minimum levels of adequacy because of rent payments. Id. at 32.

Recent Changes in the Housing Status of Blacks in Los Angeles

In the aftermath of reductions in federal housing assistance programs during the 1980s, many cities are experiencing severe shortages of affordable housing. It is particularly difficult for low income and minority households to find and maintain adequate, low-cost housing. This article describes how Los Angeles has responded to this need through implementation of a particular housing policy and financing strategy. It specifically examines what impacts this program has had in producing affordable housing in the city's low-income, minority neighborhoods. Recommendations for further public action on housing needs in Los Angeles are also offered.

Trends in the Housing Status of Black Americans across Selected Metropolitan Areas

This article examines housing data for a set of metropolitan areas and their central cities, and explores the major issues that arise when considering the impacts by race of federal housing assistance programs. Housing market conditions and characteristics vary widely by race across the areas covered—Birmingham, AL; Buffalo, NY; Cleveland, OH; Indianapolis, IN; Memphis, TN; Milwaukee, WI; Newport News, VA; Oklahoma City, OK; Providence, RI; Salt Lake City, UT; and San Jose, CA. Issues related to racial impacts of federal housing assistance emanate from two major policy goals—to help low-income households and to provide equal housing opportunity.

State and local governments: New initiatives in low‐income housing preservation

Abstract Preservation of the federally assisted low‐income housing stock is a critical issue in housing policy for the 1990s. Most of the low‐income housing initiatives that emerged over the last decade at the local and state levels were in response to changing economies and housing markets, to shifts in composition of the low‐income population, and to cutbacks in federal housing assistance as well as potential losses in the federally assisted housing inventory. The expansion of housing initiatives at state and local levels has critical ramifications for federal housing policy. It is a challenge to the federal government, which has not undergone a similar dramatic change in housing assistance policies. A number of areas of a new “federal partnership” need to be explored.

Deciding how to use scarce federal housing aid funds

Abstract This paper assesses the major forms of federal housing assistance and compares the relative value of each in meeting the housing needs of the nation's low‐ and moderate‐income households. Programs are first identified and described. A ranking system, based on nine criteria of desirability, is then developed and used to compare the programs. The evaluation system presented in this paper represents one method of determining how to allocate scarce federal housing assistance funds. The subjective nature of the evaluation process dictates that other criteria and weighting systems may be legitimately applied. However, to provide a clear decision‐making framework, any such system should clearly explain its assumptions and rationales.

The future's poor: Projecting the population eligible for federal housing assistance

Microanalytic simulation techniques are used to show that, under a reasonable set of assumptions, the real income of elderly households can be projected to grow at a rate higher than that of other population groups over the next several decades. Simulation modeling also shows that current low marriage and fertility rates and high divorce rates, if continued, will lead to a future population that is proportionately more elderly and of smaller average family size. A number of federal, state, and local assistance programs restrict eligibility to low-income households. In an application to the major federal housing assistance program, it is shown that future growth in the number of elderly households may well be offset by their relatively high income growth, leaving the proportion elderly among those eligible for assistance essentially unchanged over the next 40 years. The findings imply that future changes in the demographic composition of the U.S. population may not be reflected in the composition of the low-income population. This possibility should be considered in planning assistance programs targeted on the poor.