Housing In Baltimore Research Articles

“I Thought This Was a Ghost Neighborhood”: How Youth Respond to Neighborhood Change

Abstract Relatively little scholarship centers the experiences of Black youth to understand how young people interact with their neighborhood contexts, evaluate the differences between neighborhoods, and adapt to new neighborhoods. Using interviews with 120 Black youth whose families moved from high-poverty central city neighborhoods into lower-poverty, more racially diverse suburban neighborhoods with the Baltimore Housing Mobility Program, we find that Black youth describe tradeoffs that come with living in both city and suburban neighborhoods. While youth viewed their suburban neighborhoods as safer, the young people encountered new repertoires of socializing and space use after moving to the suburbs, with fewer opportunities to spontaneously hang out with peers. This made it challenging to establish new social ties. In response, youth adopted varied strategies, some aligned with new patterns of socializing, others stayed inside, and some returned to the city to reconnect with friends, even if this involved returning to neighborhoods they perceived as less safe. Our work underscores the idea that neighborhoods do not impose culture on youth in enduring or inflexible ways; rather they offer strategies of action that youth can decide to take up. How youth perceive the qualities of their neighborhoods shapes where and how they choose to spend their time.

MariaKrysan and KyleCrowderCycle of Segregation: Social Processes and Residential StratificationNew York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2017. 288 p. $35.00

MariaKrysan and KyleCrowderCycle of Segregation: Social Processes and Residential StratificationNew York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2017. 288 p. $35.00

Walking Away From The Wire: Housing Mobility and Neighborhood Opportunity in Baltimore

Families using the Housing Choice Voucher Program rarely experience large gains in neighborhood or school quality when compared with unassisted poor renters. Research on housing mobility programs has reached mixed conclusions about whether vouchers can improve neighborhood and school quality, especially in the long term. We revisit these findings using new data from the partial remedy to the Thompson v. HUD desegregation case in Baltimore, known as the Baltimore Housing Mobility Program (BHMP). Through targeted vouchers, intensive counseling and innovative policy features, the BHMP helped families move to low-poverty, nonsegregated neighborhoods with higher performing school districts. We examine residential outcomes for the first 1,800 families that moved through the program for a period of up to 9 years. We find that BHMP families moved to more integrated and affluent neighborhoods, in school districts with more qualified teachers and fewer poor students—and most families stayed in these neighborhoods beyond their initial lease-up period. Eventually, a small proportion of families moved to neighborhoods that are less white, but still significantly less poor and less segregated than their original communities. We interpret these findings in light of past mobility programs and discuss policy implications for the Housing Choice Voucher Program.

Causal Thinking in the Twilight Zone

To students of causality, the writings of William Cochran provide an excellent and intriguing vantage point for studying how statistics, lacking the necessary mathematical tools, managed nevertheless to cope with increasing demands for policy evaluation from observational studies. Cochran met this challenge in the years 1955-1980, when statistics was preparing for a profound, albeit tortuous transition from a science of data, to a science of data generating processes. The former, governed by Fisher’s dictum (Fisher, 1922) “the object of statistical methods is the reduction of data” was served well by the traditional language of probability theory. The latter, on the other hand, seeking causal effects and policy recommendations, required an extension of probability theory to facilitate mathematical representations of generating processes. No such representation was allowed into respectable statistical circles in the 1950-60s, when Cochran started looking into the social effects of public housing in Baltimore. While data showed improvement in health and well-being of families that moved from slums to public housing, it soon became obvious that the estimated improvement was strongly biased; Cochran reasoned that in order to become eligible for public housing the parent of a family may have to possess both initiative and some determination in dealing with the bureaucracy, thus making their families more likely to obtain better healthcare than non-eligible families. 1 This led him to suggest “adjustment for covariates” for the explicit purpose of reducing this causal effect bias. While there were others before Cochran who applied adjustment for various purposes, Cochran is credited for introducing this technique to statistics (Salsburg, 2002) primarily because he popularized the method and taxonomized it by purpose of usage. Unlike most of his contemporaries, who considered cause-effect relationships “ill-defined” outside the confines of Fisherian experiments, Cochran had no qualm admitting that he sought such relationships in observational studies. He in fact went as far as dening the objective of an observational study: “to elucidate causal-and-effect relationships” in situations where controlled experiments are infeasible (Cochran, 1965). Indeed, in the paper before us, the word “cause” is used fairly freely, and other causal terms such as “effect,” “influence,” and “explanation” are almost as frequent as “regression” or “variance.” Still, Cochran was well aware that he was dealing with unchartered extra-statistical territory and cautioned us: “Claim of proof of cause and effect must carry with it an explanation of the mechanism by which this effect is produced.”

Relocation Counselling and Supportive Services as Tools to Prevent Negative Spillover Effects: A Review

This paper aims to review the literature on negative neighbourhood spillovers connected to four voluntary housing mobility programs: Gautreaux 1 and Gautreaux 2 (Chicago), the Moving to Opportunity Fair Housing Demonstration (five cities) and the Baltimore Housing Mobility Program. Although these four programs involve voluntary moves, a great deal may be learned from them because of (1) efforts to forestall community opposition and (2) special counselling and supportive programs provided to ease adjustment into destination neighbourhoods. Unfortunately, the available research often falls short in providing evidence for or against negative spillover effects. Nevertheless, our review indicates that screening out multi-problem families, limiting the number of housing voucher families moving into particular neighbourhoods and providing both pre- and post-relocation counselling to program participants can minimize the risk of negative neighbourhood spillovers.

<i>Baltimore's Alley Houses: Homes for Working People since the 1780s</i> (review)

Reviewed by: Baltimore's Alley Houses: Homes for Working People since the 1780s Laura B. Driemeyer (bio) Mary Ellen Hayward Baltimore's Alley Houses: Homes for Working People since the 1780s Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008. 328 pages. 98 halftone illustrations, 6 line drawings. ISBN 978-0-8018-8834-2, $45.00 HB The rowhouse likely comes to mind when one thinks about the nineteenth-century American urban residential landscape, especially in the mid-Atlantic and New England regions. The versatility of this housing form led to its widespread construction in a range of scales and styles suitable for a variety of economic classes, from laborers to the elite. Remarkably, this common building type, especially the humble variants constructed for working people, remains a relatively understudied component of the urban vernacular landscape. Baltimore's Alley Houses: Homes for Working People since the 1780s helps rectify this lacuna. Hayward's case study analyzes the prevalent alley house, the smallest scale of row housing in Baltimore, Maryland, "to shed light on the subject of planned housing for the poor and working classes by closely investigating the housing patterns and urban growth of one of America's most important early nineteenth-century cities" (8). This focus on small-scale row housing, constructed on narrow, mid-block alleys and built for and occupied by large numbers of the city's working people, distinguishes this volume as a valuable addition to the small but growing body of case studies of urban vernacular residential forms. The book has garnered a number of awards, including the Vernacular Architecture Forum's 2009 Abbott Lowell Cummings Prize and a 2009 Heritage Book Award given by the Maryland Historic Trust. Baltimore's Alley Houses, a well-illustrated architectural and social history, combines fieldwork and extensive documentary research in the best tradition of vernacular architecture studies to analyze construction and residency patterns of alley houses built in the city from the late eighteenth century to about 1909, when Baltimore's new building code banned construction of new tenements and apartments on streets measuring less than forty feet in width as part of local housing reform efforts. While the rowhouse is not unique to Baltimore, as the author notes in the introduction, what distinguishes the city's row housing is the sheer quantity of examples constructed throughout the nineteenth century and the diversity of scale. Of particular significance is the large number of alley houses or small row-houses still extant. Smaller numbers of alley houses survive and were constructed in more discrete time periods in other mid-Atlantic cities: in Philadelphia alley house construction largely disappeared after the Civil War, and in Washington, DC, the form was popularized predominantly only after the Civil War (9). This study of Baltimore's alley houses "derives from a preservation imperative" (ix) in response to the city housing commissioner's mid-1990s threat to demolish them wholesale as a means of solving the vacant housing crisis. In response to this threat, "several hundred blocks of houses" were "recorded, documented, photographed, and put on file" by local preservationists over a five-year period (ix). Hayward's book is the published end product of the analysis of the results of that heroic endeavor. That fieldwork established a baseline definition of alley houses based on location, scale, and degree of ornament. A hierarchy of rowhousing by location exists within each city block, based on street widths and their relationship to the block. Whereas developers constructed the widest three-story, three-bay rowhouses on the primary streets and slightly narrower ones on mid-block streets, on alley streets they constructed two-story, two-bay rowhouses. Alley houses front on mid-block alleys or lanes measuring less than thirty feet. Their decorative detailing tends to be a simplified or economical version of the current style at the time of their construction. The interior plan is typically two rooms deep, sometimes with a rear kitchen addition or service ell. Baltimore's Alley Houses includes an introduction, six chapters, and an epilogue. The volume features a generous use of images including plans and elevations; historic and recent photographs; historic prints and drawings; and details from historic maps, atlases, and bird...

Immediate and one-year post-intervention effectiveness of Maryland's lead law treatments

A 1994 Maryland law prescribes a lead-based paint risk reduction standard for pre-1950, privately owned rental housing. This standard, applied at each tenancy change, can be met by sampling to verify that dust lead loadings are within acceptable limits or by performing specific lead hazard reduction treatments, followed by an independent visual inspection without dust sampling. We evaluated the ability of visual inspection to predict treatment completion and dust lead loadings. Fifty-two Baltimore housing units were enrolled and received the law-specified treatments. Before treatment, study risk assessors conducted visual assessments and dust lead wipe sampling in each unit. After treatment, Maryland-certified visual inspectors conducted the law's required visual inspection, followed by the study risk assessors, who performed a separate visual assessment and collected dust wipe samples. One year later, study risk assessors performed another visual assessment and dust wipe sampling ( n=34). Dust lead loadings declined significantly immediately after prescribed lead treatments were implemented. Fifty-three percent, 20%, and 47% of units had at least one sample that exceeded 1995 EPA/HUD floor, window sill and window trough clearance guidance of 100, 500 and 800 μg/ft 2, respectively. Overall, 73% of units had one or more immediate post-intervention single surface sample results exceeding the 1995 clearance values that were in effect at the time of the study. One-year post-intervention loadings remained significantly below pre-intervention levels for floors but not window sills or troughs. Visual assessments alone, without dust lead testing, did not ensure that prescribed treatments were completed or that dust lead loadings were below clearance values.

Influence of prior sexual risk experience on response to intervention targeting multiple risk behaviors among adolescents

Purpose To identify correlates of sexual risk variations among African-American adolescents, and to examine the influence of prior sexual experience on response to a HIV risk-reduction intervention. Methods Eight hundred seventeen African-American youth aged 13 to 16 years living in and around urban public housing in Baltimore were recruited to participate in a HIV risk-reduction intervention targeting multiple risk behaviors. An instrument designed to measure three levels of sexual risk (“abstinent,” “protected sex” [having sex with a condom], and “unprotected sex” [having sex without a condom]) was administered at baseline, 6 months and 12 months postintervention. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to identify predictors of the degree of sexual risk using longitudinal data. Repeated measure analyses were conducted to assess behavioral changes over time among the three groups. Results Data confirmed the co-variation of sexual risk behavior and other problem behaviors among adolescents, cross-sectionally and longitudinally. After exposure to an 8-session risk-reduction intervention, youth engaging in the highest degree of sexual risk demonstrated the greatest reduction in both sexual risk and other risks. These improvements were seen at both 6 months and 12 months postintervention. Youth who were abstinent at baseline maintained the lowest levels in risk involvement throughout the study period when compared with sexually active youth. However, abstinent youth risk involvement significantly increased at 6 months and 12 months after baseline. Youth engaging in protected sex at baseline demonstrated a significant increase in non-condom use and a significant decrease in multiple risk involvement over time. Conclusions Results support HIV risk-reduction intervention efforts that target multiple risk behaviors. Response of adolescents to the intervention is directly related to the sexual risk behavior at baseline. These data may suggest that the response to risk behavior intervention depends in part on the risk behavior profile of the population to which it is being applied.

Psychogeriatric Assessment and Treatment in Urban Public Housing

A psychogeriatric outreach team provides in-home evaluation and treatment for elderly persons living in high-rise public housing in Baltimore. During the first ten months of the team's operation, housing staff referred 9.5 percent of the elderly residents of four public housing sites for evaluation. Evaluations were completed for 85 residents, 25 percent of whom were age 80 or older. Twenty-one percent of the residents evaluated were unable to perform at least one basic activity of daily living such as eating, bathing, or dressing without assistance, and 54 percent needed help with cooking, cleaning, and other instrumental activities of daily living. Eighty-nine percent of the residents who were evaluated by the team met criteria for at least one DSM-III-R diagnosis; 63 percent of the disorders had not been previously diagnosed. The most prevalent diagnoses were dementia, depressive syndromes, schizophrenic and delusional disorders, and alcohol abuse or dependence.

Multiple and Cross-Resistance in a Field-Collected Strain of the German Cockroach (Orthoptera: Blattellidae)1

A field-collected strain of Blattella germanica (L.) was highly resistant (LT5 resistance ratio < 90X) to bendiocarb. The strain, which was collected from public housing in Baltimore, Md., was found also to be resistant to chlordane (8.2 ×), diazinon (3.7 ×), malathion (6.5 ×), and propoxur (13.3 ×). Chlorpyrifos was still effective against this strain of German cockroach in both public housing and laboratory assays. Since the area where the parent stock was collected had been previously treated only once with bendiocarb, this is another example of cross-resistance. The laboratory-determined resistance level likely accounts for the control failures when bendiocarb was used in Baltimore Housing and Community Development units.

Baltimore's Housing Court Clinic

Baltimore's Housing Court Clinic Get access Richard W. Bateman, M.S.W., Richard W. Bateman, M.S.W. assistant director Big Brothers of Baltimore, Inc., Baltimore, Maryland Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar Herbert J. Stern, M.Ed. Herbert J. Stern, M.Ed. specialist Division of Guidance and Placement, Baltimore Department of Education Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar Social Work, Volume 6, Issue 4, October 1961, Pages 43–49, https://doi.org/10.1093/sw/6.4.43 Published: 01 October 1961

The Role of Government in Influencing Changes in Housing in Baltimore: 1940 to 1950

The Role of Government in Influencing Changes in Housing in Baltimore: 1940 to 1950