Housing Policy Debate Research Articles

Perspectives or Misperceptions? Why Better Land-Use Data Are Critical to Housing Policy Debates

Research correlating stringency in land-use regulation to low housing supply, high housing costs, and segregation relies on surveys of planners about land-use regulation. Housing policy reform proposals rely on much of this same research. We assess the reliability and validity of questions from three surveys using objective data on land-use regulation and its application. Response errors indicate that planners systematically underestimate the stringency effects of local regulation while overestimating the impact of state law. This signals potential bias that may skew some analysis. Scholars should account for this potential bias when analyzing survey data to inform land-use policy debates.

How Accommodative Are Houses in Trinidad? Implications for Older Persons With Disabilities

ABSTRACT This paper examines the accommodation in houses in Trinidad in the context of older persons with disabilities. An exploratory sequential mixed-methods research design was used. In the qualitative phase, a list of accommodation items was identified via interviews. This information was used to develop a questionnaire to measure accommodation items of a large nationally representative sample of houses in Trinidad. Only physical accessibility items were identified, and data from 768 houses indicated that no house had all identified items. There is a need for urgent adoption and implementation of accessibility standards. Findings also indicate modification cost is a challenge and that responses targeted to low-income and rural households are needed. Lastly, the social care context, specifically the family care potential, is an important consideration in housing policy debates, and community homes for the aged and programs involving multiple experts to identify and support housing modification are recommended.

Introduction to Keeping America Housed, a Special Edition of Housing Policy Debate

Introduction to Keeping America Housed, a Special Edition of Housing Policy Debate

The prospects of artificial intelligence in urban planning

ABSTRACT Over the past several decades, urban planning has considered a variety of advanced analysis methods with greater and lesser degrees of adoption. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is probably the most notable, with others such as database management systems (DBMS), decision support systems (DSS), planning support systems (PSS), and expert systems (ES), having mixed levels of recognition and acceptance (Kontokosta, C. E. (2021). Urban informatics in the science and practice of planning. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 41(4), 382–395. doi:10.1177/0739456X18793716; Yigitcanlar, T., Desouza, K. C., Butler, L., & Roozkhosh, F. (2020). Contributions and risks of artificial intelligence (AI) in building smarter cities: Insights from a systematic review of the literature. Energies, 13(6), 1473). Advances in information technologies have moved very slowly in the field of urban planning, more recently concerning ‘smart city’ technologies while revolutionizing other domains, such as consumer goods and services. Baidu, Amazon, Netflix, Google, and many others are using these technologies to gain insights into consumer behaviour and characteristics and improve supply chains and logistics. This is an opportune time for urban planners to consider the application of AI-related techniques given vast increases in data availability, increased processing speeds, and increased popularity and development of planning related applications. Research on these topics by urban planning scholars has increased over the past few years, but there is little evidence to suggest that the results are making it into the hands of professional planners (Batty, M. (2018). Artificial intelligence and smart cities. Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science, 45(1), 3–6; Batty, M. (2021). Planning education in the digital age. Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science, 48(2), 207–211). Others encourage planners to leverage the ubiquity of data and advances in computing to enhance redistributive justice in information resources and procedural justice in decision-making among marginalized communities (Boeing, G., Besbris, M., Schachter, A., & Kuk, J. (2020). Housing search in the Age of Big data: Smarter cities or the same Old blind spots? Housing Policy Debate, 31(1), 112–126; Goodspeed, R. (2015). Smart cities: Moving beyond urban cybernetics to tackle wicked problems. Cambridge journal of regions, Economy and Society, 8(1), 79–92). This article highlights findings from a recent literature review on AI in planning and discusses the results of a national survey of urban planners about their perspectives on AI adoption and concerns they have expressed about its broader use in the profession. Currently, the outlook is mixed, matching how urban planners initially viewed the early stages of computer adoption within the profession. And yet today, personal computers are essential to any job.

Exploring Climate Change in U.S. Housing Policy

ABSTRACT Housing is an established channel for U.S. climate policy. Local and national environmental policymakers have attempted to mitigate the contributions of home energy use and residential sprawl to the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global climate change for almost a half-century. More recently, hazard and planning officials are also exploring how to adapt housing to the multiple environmental effects that are already being realized as a consequence. But how is contemporary housing policy responding to the opportunities and needs of the climate crisis? The wide terrain of housing policy—including local land-use regulations, public subsidies for affordable housing production and maintenance, direct aid to households for their housing costs, the enforcement of fair housing laws, and the promotion of secure and affordable lending institutions among many relevant policy interventions—has struggled with integrating climate mitigation and adaptation strategies for a host of reasons. Resource constraints abound. Housing policymakers continue to focus on other persistent challenges such as the housing affordability crisis. The challenge of integrating climate response in this already complex social, economic, and environmental system may even be overwhelming. This special issue of Housing Policy Debate explores the ways in which the range of contemporary housing-relevant policy addresses climate change or, as the submissions suggest, ignores it.

Adult student perspectives toward housing during COVID-19

Precarious housing conditions are on the rise in many developing economies, which has resulted in increasing segmentation between population groups with different socioeconomic backgrounds, and in differentiated access to life chances. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and its subsequent lockdowns, the relation between learning and housing conditions has become crucial for understanding the adult student's learning experience and well-being. However, knowledge about this relation is limited. This study employs the concept of dwelling to investigate how housing-related precarities may impact upon experiences of students during COVID-19 induced stay-at-home orders. The study draws on fifteen in-depth interviews and a Zoom Video Conferencing (ZVC)-aided focus group in the Ashaiman Municipality in Ghana, to explore students’ perspectives on precarious housing conditions, well-being and learning. Findings reveal that experiences of precarious housing conditions can be complicated and compromised in diverse ways related to quality learning environment, financial, and personal well-being. Through ZVC-aided focus groups, participants defined housing suitable for learning – not purely in academic terms but in relation to housing characteristics, the neighbourhood environment, the built environment, and the social relations of learning. The study finds that students perceive an array of economic, social and geographic barriers to learning and that these perspectives deserve attention in adult student housing policy debate.

Implementing a Natural Family Planning Program: The Case of The Metropolitan Archdiocese of Cagayan De Oro

Implementing a Natural Family Planning Program: The Case of The Metropolitan Archdiocese of Cagayan De Oro

In Memoriam: Robert Lang

Robert (Rob) Lang passed away on June 21 of this year. Rob’s contributions to Housing Policy Debate (HPD) and the larger housing and urban policy debate are innumerable. Rob became Managing Editor ...

Another Look at Location Affordability: Understanding the Detailed Effects of Income and Urban Form on Housing and Transportation Expenditures

ABSTRACT Findings from a study using the Panel Survey of Income Dynamics (PSID) and detailed urban environment and transit data support the location affordability hypothesis. Households in location-efficient places spent significantly less on household transportation, enough to offset high housing costs. Walkable blocks and good transit especially contribute to these savings. But households with very low incomes (below 35% AMI) do not see significant enough savings. Authors recommend investments in transit, sidewalks, and economic development in disinvested areas; the preservation and creation of affordable housing of all types and tenures; and more supports for households with very low incomes. For decades, researchers have explored how location efficiency (LE) affects housing affordability, including incorporating transportation costs into a holistic housing affordability measure known as location affordability. Others have argued that estimated transportation savings from LE may be overstated because of limits in data and methods. Smart and Klein’s 2018 article in Housing Policy Debate analyzed the PSID and found “no evidence to support the location affordability hypothesis.” Considering their study’s policy implications, as well as its methodological limitations, we tested the PSID data at a smaller geography using more detailed household and urban form variables, per the LE literature. With this approach, we find statistically significant and meaningful transportation cost differences that are enough to offset higher housing prices for several income groups. However, the transportation savings for households in the lowest-income group in urban areas do not offset high housing costs. Because location-affordable places are in short supply, and the extreme shortage of affordable housing, both housing and transportation investments are needed to support households with low and moderate incomes. Expanding location affordability regionally will also help to address climate change and expand access to job opportunities, goods, services, and other amenities.

The Past, Present, and Future of the Community Reinvestment Act

The Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), enacted in 1977 and the subject of this special issue of Housing Policy Debate, was part of a trilogy of laws in the late 1970s including the Equal Credit Oppo...

The Fair Housing Act at 50: Successes, Failures, and Future Directions

This special issue of Housing Policy Debate presents scholarly articles and commentaries that were inspired by the 50th Anniversary of the Fair Housing Act (FHA). Early drafts of the articles in th...

Inclusionary housing policies in Gothenburg, Sweden, and Stuttgart, Germany

Affordable housing shortage and concerns about social and income segregation have become a focal point of housing policy debate in many Western countries, and inclusionary housing policies (IH) have become widespread. IH is a term that summarizes municipal ambitions to spur the inclusion of affordable housing in otherwise market-rate projects through development restrictions. This article investigates IH policy objectives and outcomes of policies applied by the German city of Stuttgart and a Swedish pilot project in the city of Gothenburg.
 Although IH policies in the two countries generally have very similar objectives and incentive structures, underlying slow-moving institutions decide fundamental traits of the fast-moving institution of IH. In the Swedish case, allocation methods of low-rent apartments under the unitary housing system might prevent targeted polices such as IH from functioning as intended. In the German case, IH is integrated into the existing social and affordable housing system. Therefore its social objectives are not contested, although the limitation of private property rights and the incentive structures of developers are bound to be discussed.
 Irrespective of the housing system, the extent of public land ownership might also be a decisive factor in whether to implement IH policies or not. In Stuttgart, where public land ownership is limited, IH policies might be an effective way to produce affordable housing, as alternatives, including finding inexpensive land for public production, are limited. As Gothenburg municipality owns most of the land available for housing development, has a planning monopoly and public housing companies with good financial standing, it might find other, quicker and possibly less costly, ways to develop affordable housing than applying IH, especially if it is implemented mainly through public investors.

Migration, Mobility, and Neighborhood Attainment: Using the PSID to Understand the Processes of Racial Stratification.

In this article we describe the considerable influence of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) on research on residential migration, mobility, and neighborhood attainment, as well as the role of PSID-based research in housing policy debates. We review some of the central research findings and key discoveries that have come from analyses that have used the PSID. We then present new research, using PSID data that are linked to geographic data, to demonstrate how geographic moves are associated with changes in neighborhood poverty rates. The relationship differs markedly for blacks and whites, and our results add to a body of work that shows sharp racial differences in residential context, and the role that personal migration plays in shaping this stratification. Finally, we use these findings and the shortcomings of past research to prescribe ways that the PSID could be enhanced to understand more about migration dynamics and processes of residential stratification.

Confronting Urban Crisis and Opportunity in the 1990s: An Insiders’ View on How Fannie Mae’s Housing Research Helped Reset Policy and Remade Cities

In response to the urban crisis of the early 1990s, the government-sponsored enterprise known as Fannie Mae used what would become the Annual Housing Conference (AHC) to influence urban and housing policy. This article traces the history of the AHC in relation to Housing Policy Debate as part of a concerted effort of Fannie Mae to invest in and upgrade the quality of urban and housing policy research during the 1990s. The impact of these conferences on the policy community in universities, Washington DC, the states, and indeed the world is analyzed by highlighting some of work that came out of the more influential conferences including the 1991 Homeless Conference, the 1994 Access to Opportunity Conference, and the 1997 Social Capital Conference. The article is concluded with an appraisal of the AHC’s legacy.

An empirical analysis of Hong Kong's planning control decisions for residential development

Hong Kong's planning control system, despite its critical importance in the land development process, has usually been overlooked in housing policy debates. In particular, the system's innate flexibilities give rise to questions as to whether the Town Planning Board's (TPB) planning control decisions are under the influence of 1) interests of large property developers; 2) government housing policy objectives; and 3) market conditions. In this light, this paper examines the TPB's decisions on applications for housing development in three residential statutory zones since January 1990: R(A) zone (i.e. a zone designated primarily for high-density residential development), R(B) zone (i.e. a zone established primarily for medium-density residential development), and R(C) zone (i.e. a zone intended primarily for low-density residential development). A total of 390 cases are studied. The findings show that the TPB's planning control decisions are subject to market conditions for R(A) zone, and skewed towards the interests of large property developers for R(C) zone. Yet, the decisions for all three zones are not in line with the government's housing policy objectives. Besides, the TPB, while being more receptive towards more intensified residential developments in R(B) zone, is usually against them in R(C) zone. Also found for R(C) zone is that, the TPB is more likely to approve development in urban areas and in new towns, and that it has taken a more pro-development stance since Hong Kong's handover to China. Interestingly, in this zone, while requests for higher site coverage are treated more favourably, the same cannot be said about requests for higher allowable plot ratio or the relaxation of building heights. Policy implications are then discussed.

Autonomy and Housing Policy

The ideal of individual autonomy figures prominently into housing policy debates. Initiatives designed to expand housing choice, reduce housing instability and promote residential mobility all implicitly refer to some aspect of autonomy, but the theoretical foundation of the relationship between the normative ideal of autonomy and housing has not been fully excavated. This paper draws upon the moral and political philosophy literature to propose and explore an autonomy-oriented conception of housing. The proposed view provides a new perspective on the contribution of housing to individual well-being; demonstrates the relationship between individual autonomy, housing, and community; provides an application of the contemporary philosophical debates surrounding anti-perfectionism; and provides new insights into the normative dimensions of the people-versus-place housing policy debate.

Acknowledgment of Housing Policy Debate Reviewers

Acknowledgment of Housing Policy Debate Reviewers

The Future of Research on Assisted Housing for the Poor

Research published in Housing Policy Debate and elsewhere covers many topics. Much of this research seeks to help the federal government refine its assisted housing policies and programs so that th...

The Future of Housing Research: Introduction

In an earlier issue (Vol. 25, No. 2, April 2015, pp. 208–214), I reviewed article topics that have appeared in Housing Policy Debate over the past 25 years. The purpose was to take a look back at t...

Household Energy Consumption and Housing Choice in the U.S. Residential Sector

Energy use in residential buildings accounted for 21% of U.S. CO2 emissions in 2013. Efforts to reduce energy use in the residential sector have been overly focused on improving energy efficiency of buildings. This article incorporates housing policy debate into energy policy, hoping to provide new opportunities for planners to participate in residential energy policy. Using data from the latest Residential Energy Consumption Survey, structural equation modeling has been applied to isolate the direct and indirect effects of household and housing characteristics on residential energy use. Results show that more than 80% of a household's indirect effect on energy consumption happens through the building characteristics, which is characterized as the housing choice effect on energy consumption. Planners can participate in residential energy management efforts by influencing housing needs and priorities of communities towards more sustainable compact housing units.