Housing Search Research Articles

Trace level triacetone-triperoxide identification with SPME–GC-MS in model systems

Triacetone-triperoxide is a high explosive mainly used by terrorist groups. With the spreading of the recipe on the Internet, increasing number of bomb attacks are being reported worldwide using triacetone-triperoxide. A simple identification method is described using 100 μm polydimethyl siloxane fibre solid phase microextraction and gas chromatography combined with spectrometry. The method was tested on various pre- and post-explosion models that can be collected in a house search or after a bomb attack. Sample preservation and stability was also examined. Identification of triacetone-triperoxide residues in post-explosion models was feasible 24 h after ignition, the detection limit being 5 ng.

Teaching and Learning Guide for: Racial Residential Segregation in Urban America

Teaching and Learning Guide for: Racial Residential Segregation in Urban America

Does race matter in the search for housing? An exploratory study of search strategies, experiences, and locations

In a departure from most studies of the causes of racial residential segregation that focus on the three main factors of economics, preferences, and discrimination, this paper examines one of the mechanisms through which segregation may be perpetuated: the housing search process itself. Data come from a 2004 face-to-face survey of an area probability sample of African American and white householders living in the three counties of the Detroit metropolitan area ( n = 734). These data are used to address three research questions: (1) What are the strategies people use to find housing, and are there racial differences in those strategies? (2) Do whites and African Americans report similar or different experiences in the search for housing? (3) Do the locations in which people search for housing vary by race? Results show that once controlling for the type of search and background characteristics, the search strategies are generally similar for whites and blacks, though more so for buyers than renters: for example, black renters use more informal strategies and networks than do white renters. Analyses that look at the features of these strategies, however, reveal some significant racial differences. Search experiences are similar in terms of length and number of homes inspected, but other objective and subjective questions about the search show blacks at a disadvantage compared to whites: African Americans submit more offers/applications for homes, report more difficulties, and are much more likely to feel they were taken advantage of during the search. The racial characteristics of the communities in which blacks and whites search are quite different: whites mainly search in white communities, while African Americans search in communities with a variety of racial compositions. The paper concludes with a call for further research on housing search strategies, with particular attention to the role of social networks.

Residential Experiences and the Culture of Suburbanization: A Case Study of Portuguese Homebuyers in Mississauga

This paper examines the housing experiences of immigrants to Canada through a survey of first-generation Portuguese homebuyers in Mississauga, a suburb of Toronto. The survey focused on the push/pull factors leading to their decision to live in the suburbs, their housing search strategies, and their use of services in Mississauga and in the initial area of Portuguese immigrant settlement in downtown Toronto. This study uses data from a questionnaire administered to 110 Portuguese homebuyers in 1990, shortly after their first move to suburban Mississauga; a sample of those respondents were re-interviewed in 2003. The evidence indicates that these immigrants were ‘pulled’ into relocating to Mississauga because of their desire to live in a single-family dwelling in a good neighbourhood. Their housing search relied extensively on ethnic sources of information, particularly Portuguese real estate agents. In general, this group of immigrants expressed satisfaction with their move. The Portuguese community in Mississauga is characterized by a form of voluntary segregation, which seems to be partly a result of their reliance on their own ethnic community for information, language barriers to participating in non-Portuguese activities, and a cultural preference for living near people of the same ethnic background. One consequence of this re-segregation process, by which Portuguese people recreate a Portuguese ‘homeland’ in the suburbs, has been the limitation of their social contacts with members of other ethnic communities that have also settled in suburban Mississauga.

Innovations: Alcohol & Drug Abuse: Methadone Maintenance in Europe and Hungary: Degrees of Sociocultural Resistance

Innovations: Alcohol & Drug Abuse: Methadone Maintenance in Europe and Hungary: Degrees of Sociocultural Resistance

Residential Choices of Single Women in Tokyo Metropolitan Area: A Multi-method Approach

Previous studies of residential mobility and housing policies have focused on nuclear families. Recently, however, the number of one-person households has increased in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area, mainly due to the increase of late marriage and more working women. The purpose of this study is to examine the residential choice process of single women of the ages of 30-39 and to analyze the factors affecting it. To identify these, this study adopted a multimethod approach combining quantitative and qualitative methods. From the analysis of census data it became clear that single women in their 30's living alone concentrate in the western vicinities of the CBD, which implies that they prefer convenient places to short commutes. Quantitative analysis of the questionnaire data supported this inference by the fact that the most important reason given for their residential choice was accessibility to railway stations. However, the type of residence and working style showed marked differences among income groups. The answers to the open-ended questions of the questionnaire and a focus group interview revealed constraints on the housing choices of single women. Especially, some of the respondents faced difficulty in housing searches and in making contracts with real estate brokers. This could be due to the low confidence of single women, reflecting the conventional patriarchy of Japanese society.

An Exploratory Study of Neighborhood Choices Among Moving to Opportunity Participants in Baltimore, Maryland: The Influence of Housing Search Assistance

This study examined the neighborhood choices of 150 families who participated in the Moving To Opportunity Program (MTO) in Baltimore, Maryland. The MTO program, utilizing an experimental design, provided intensive housing search and counseling services to the experimental subjects. This study found that the counseling services were instrumental in altering the subject's cognitive maps, and they were more likely to move to neighborhoods that were more racially integrated, safer, and, also, had higher levels of satisfaction with their new neighborhood. The authors conclude that the MTO program in Baltimore represents a clear case of public policy that, at least in the short term, worked.

Drogue et crime : l’impact du commerce de drogues sur le tissu urbain

The problem addressed in this analysis is whether « routine activities » of drug dependent criminals are associated with the spatial concentration of crime committed by these criminals. This problem is tested in a series of analyses including an investigation of the spatial pattern of the residential burglaries committed by drug dependent burglars using W.A.V. Clark's spatial choice housing search models. While Clark used the home and work place as nodes in the housing search, we use the home and drug market place as nodes in the criminal search of drug addicts. If the addict supports his or her habit with property crime, these nodes are expected to be a focal point for criminal activity in a distance minimizing scenario. The data indicate that the spatial concentration of property crime about drug market places means that a « crime containment » policy practiced by many police agencies is doomed to failure. Property criminals will continue to probe outward from a containment area which encompasses a drug market place. In fact, drug dependent property criminals may act as a vanguard for spatially expanding drug markets. Drug sellers and drug dependent property criminals seem to operate in a symbiotic relationship.

Innovative financing for low-income housing improvement: lessons from programmes in Central America

This paper discusses what has been learnt from housing and local development programmes in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua supported and funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) during the last 15 years. It identifies common financial mechanisms that have proven to be effective and affordable by the urban poor in their search for better housing. It also discusses the different policies and interventions by national and sub-national governments and the “non-market incentives” that were required to make low-income housing programmes feasible and affordable, and what these imply for the financial and institutional sustainability of such programmes. It ends with recommendations for other international donors and national institutions that are seeking to design new financial services for housing for low-income groups.

Influence of Accessibility on Residential Location Choice

There has been substantial discussion among planners about the influence of transport in residential location choices. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the importance of accessibility in explaining residential location choices. The paper addresses this issue by presenting and analyzing findings from the literature and results of a housing market estimation study in the Netherlands. The research findings for the Netherlands illustrate that the transport system influences residential moves at three stages: in move-stay choice, estimation results show that households are less likely to move away from a more accessible location; travel time variables are significant for all household types, and therefore changes in the transport system will affect the size of the housing market and search area of the households; the model estimation results suggest that accessibility of a specific location for many household types is not a significant variable in their location choice. Overall, the empirical results suggest that the role of accessibility is significant but small compared with the effect of demographic factors, neighborhood amenities, and dwelling attributes in explaining residential location choices. The empirical findings are confirmed by findings in the literature; the present results are located at the lower end of findings reported in the literature. An important factor contributing to this result is that accessibility changes among regions in the Netherlands are rather small.

Sanfte Gentrifizierung, Studentifizierung und Inseln ethnischer Konzentration in ostdeutschen Innenstadtrandgebieten?

The year 1997 marks a turning point in the development of east German inner-city fringe areas: many old residential quarters have registered clear increases in the number of inhabitants again after a phase of exodus. The time of the trend reversal coincides with the development of an excess supply of housing space and decreasing rents, which determine the situation of east German housing markets until today and allow a relatively large freedom of choice in the search for housing. Under these conditions the social contrasts between emptying areas and areas that receive immigrants are increasing. Simultaneously a cultural differentiation between individual urban sub-areas is emerging as a result of the development of characteristic milieus. The article aims to provide a deeper insight into the developments in old residential areas near the inner cities since the middle of the 1990's. Recent trends are considered by taking the social change in the inner-city fringe areas from the period of industrial expansion in Leipzig over a period eight years as a case in point.

Participation Determinants in Armenia's Housing Purchase Certificate Programme

A housing purchase certificate (HPC) is a voucher for the purchase of a dwelling unit, either for the full price (up to a programme-determined maximum) or a grant for a partial payment (i.e. a downpayment subsidy). Using a special sample survey of programme participants, this paper examines why some participants have been successful and others not in using the certificates for the full price of a unit distributed under the HPC programme providing assistance to victims of Armenia's 1988 earthquake. Findings indicate that participants with the following attributes are more likely to succeed in finding a unit (and using the certificate): living in more difficult housing conditions at the time they receive the certificate, having more economic resources, considering more units in their housing search, relying on information about available dwellings from friends and family members rather than relying on information in the mass media and searching in markets where the supply of units on offer is relatively great. These findings form the basis for considering ways to increase success rates.

Using Housing Vouchers to Move to the Suburbs

When families with Section 8 housing vouchers move from inner-city communities to the suburbs, are they more likely to perceive difficulties and to be dissatisfied with their search for housing than families who make local moves or families who first move to the suburbs but then return to the central city? Both bivariate cross-tabular and logistic regression analysis are applied to a telephone interview sample of 300 Section 8 voucher recipients in Oakland and Berkeley, California. Although many of the movers experienced difficulty in carrying out the housing search, a vast majority were satisfied with their search. Suburban-bound movers were not more likely to perceive difficulties or to be dissatisfied with their search than were members of the two other mover groups when other background characteristics were controlled. The implications of these results for the Section 8 housing voucher program are discussed.

The internet and home purchase

In the pre–internet era, information was a key determinant of the geographic nature of intra–urban moves. Information was a far more limited commodity, and therefore subject to management and even manipulation. Information brokers, particularly real estate agents, could order and limit the kinds of information to which prospective buyers gained access, with the potential of strongly biasing search space. In the past few years, a vastly enriched information source on housing vacancies has become available through real estate industry–sponsored sites on the internet. This rich information source has the potential to influence spatial patterns and processes in the search for housing by eliminating information barriers in the search process. Three hypotheses were tested with data from Wake County (Rayleigh), North Carolina. First, those with less prior familiarity with the destination area would make more frequent use of the internet. Second, internet users would visit fewer houses personally because they would have more prior information about the market, eliminating the need for some personal home visits. Third, internet users, armed with greater information about the house, neighbourhood, and prices of other recent sales, would pay less for the same housing/neighbourhood bundle. Recent movers in Wake County, North Carolina, were surveyed in early 2000, and the characteristics of web users were compared with nonusers. The major finding of this research is that to date, the internet has had little impact on search patterns, except that those using the internet tend to visit a larger number of houses personally than those who do not use the world wide web as an information source.

Narratives of Siege: Eye-Witness Testimonies from Jenin, Bethlehem and Nablus

The testimonies below were collected from 10 to 17 May 2002. I traveled first to Jenin refugee camp. No matter how many images you have seen in the news, nothing quite prepares you for the devastation at the camp's ground zero. The storeys-high mountains of rubble are littered with reminders of lives disrupted: a mattress here, a child's schoolbook there. The 373-dunam camp, which had been home to about 13,600 residents, had been invaded at least twice before the assault that began on 3 April. The camp held out for nine days––a point of pride for many residents. Though a total of only fifty-six bodies have been found, rumors persist of mass graves and of trucks carrying body bags to undisclosed locations. Many of those who lost their homes are living with relatives in Jenin town and elsewhere, further hampering efforts to account for the missing. According to Human Rights Watch, at least 140 buildings were completely leveled and more than 200 others severely damaged, leaving about 4,000 people––more than a quarter of the population––homeless.The Israelis invaded Bethlehem (population 45,000) on 29 March, the second time in a month. The town was kept under siege for forty-four days, though world attention focused almost exclusively on the Church of the Nativity, traditional birthplace of Christ, besieged as of 2 April. Though not subjected to the kind of devastation seen in Jenin and Nablus, numerous centuries-old facades were destroyed or heavily damaged.I had every intention of traveling to Nablus, a city that had put up impressive resistance to the Israeli onslaught (which began on 3 April) and that had sustained heavy casualties and the destruction of large areas of the historic Old City. However, the numerous roadblocks and alternate routes necessitated by checkpoints and settler snipers turned the forty-minute drive to Nablus into an unpredictable journey that could last up to five hours. I had to settle for phone interviews. Official estimates of fatalities in this city of 110,000 run to about eighty.In Jenin refugee camp and Bethlehem, the sight of residents talking to a stranger with a tape recorder tended to attract other residents, and often more than one perspective was offered on events. Because I allowed interviewees to talk, rarely interrupting them, some of their narratives contain gaps and some confusion, even inconsistencies, which I have made no attempt to eliminate. At the same time, I was struck by how careful interviewees tried to be in recounting their stories, clearly distinguishing between what they had seen and what they had heard. No one rushed to accuse the Israeli army of looting (a commonly reported feature of house searches in the Ramallah area, for example); when they witnessed it, they were careful to describe the scope. Some interviewees reported the presence of Arabic-speaking soldiers, some with Lebanese accents (presumably South Lebanese Army soldiers who fled Lebanon after the Israeli withdrawal in 1999); others did not. Above all else, I was struck by the extraordinary dignity and restraint with which these people described terrible moments in their lives––when they lost a son or their homes, when they were put at great risk, when they tried to locate their dead or wounded––at a time when their entire futures were clouded with doubt.

The Housing Careers of Polish and Somali Newcomers in Toronto's Rental Market

This paper evaluates and compares the housing careers of two recent immigrant groups, the Poles and Somalis, in Toronto's rental market. Both groups first arrived in Toronto in the late 1980s but under different circumstances and with different outcomes in the housing market. The study is situated in a general conceptual framework focusing on factors affecting the housing careers of households. The analysis is based on a questionnaire survey of 60 respondents from each group who arrived in Canada between 1987 and 1994. Information was collected about the search for three residences: the first permanent residence, the one immediately before the current one and the current residence. The analysis considers the individual and household characteristics that differentiate the Polish and Somali respondents, the characteristics of Toronto's rental market that potentially act as barriers in the search for housing, the housing search process and the outcomes of the search. The latter includes the nature of the dwelling and its surroundings as well as satisfaction with the dwelling and neighbourhood. The results confirm that the Poles have been more successful than the Somalis in establishing a progressive housing career. The reasons relate to differences in individual and household characteristics and the nature of the local housing market. Specific variables include socio-economic status, household size, community resources, the housing situation before coming to Canada, Toronto's tight rental market and perceived discriminatory barriers in that market. The paper concludes with a brief evaluation of the housing career concept as used in this study.

RESIDENTIAL MOBILITY: THE IMPACTS OF WEB-BASED INFORMATION ON THE SEARCH PROCESS AND SPATIAL HOUSING CHOICE PATTERNS

In the past few years, a vastly enriched information source on housing vacancies has become available through real estate industry-sponsored sites on the Internet. This rich information source has the potential to influence spatial patterns and processes in the search for housing by eliminating information barriers in the search process. Thirty years ago, geographers documented the constraints to the search process caused by limited or biased information fields. The question addressed by this research was whether this new information availability would change the search patterns documented in the 1970s. In order to investigate this question recent movers in Wake County, North Carolina, were surveyed in early 2000, and the characteristics of Web users were compared with nonusers. The major finding of this research is that to date, the Internet has had little impact on search patterns, except that those using the Internet tend to visit a larger number of houses personally than those who do not use the World Wide Web as an information source. [Key words: residential mobility, housing search, Internet.]

Voucher Recipient Achievement of Improved Housing Conditions in the US: Do Moving Distance and Relocation Services Matter?

When householders are vouchered-out from distressed, federally subsidised private developments in the US and receive moderate relocation counselling, does that counselling lead to a more intensive housing search, longer-distance moves and higher levels of housing satisfaction ? Multiple regression analysis was applied to a data-set containing survey and geographical information (for example, distance moved, median neighbourhood income level) for 201 voucher recipients in 4 cities. The analysis was used to determine if the use of relocation counselling services (as well as the type of services utilised) and distance moved helped to explain variations in housing satisfaction. Those who used counselling services were in fact more likely to be satisfied with their new home than were those who were unaware of these services. However, those who were aware of the services but did not use them fared as well as householders who used them. Counselling to help in dealings with landlords was the most influential type of relocation assistance vas à vis housing satisfaction. The distance householders moved played an insignificant role in the analysis. This finding undoubtedly reflects the fact that voucher recipients sought to remain in or close to their original neighbourhood to be near friends and relatives and familiar bus lines, and the fact that better housing units offering a greater sense of safety were available in the same neighbourhood or in neighbourhoods adjacent to the vouchered-out development. Implications for HUD's vouchering-out policy are discussed.

Referral and housing processes in a long-term supported housing program for homeless veterans.

The study examined client characteristics, case management variables, and housing features associated with referral, entry, and short-term success in a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) national intensive case management and rental assistance program for homeless veterans. Information collected from homeless veterans at the time of initial outreach contact and from case managers during the housing search was used to create logistic regression models of referral into the program and successful completion of several stages in the process of obtaining stable independent housing. Overall, only 8 percent of the more than 65,000 eligible veterans contacted by outreach workers were referred to the program. Those referred were more likely to be female, to have more sources of income, to have recently used VA services (including residential treatment), and to have serious mental health problems. Once in the program, 64 percent of veterans eventually moved into an apartment, and 84 percent of those who obtained an apartment were stably housed one year later. In general, activities of case managers, such as accompanying the veteran to the public housing authority and securing additional sources of income, were associated with success in the housing process. The therapeutic alliance, clients' housing preferences, and the quality of housing were unrelated to retention of housing. This supported housing program was judged appropriate for a small percentage of eligible veterans. However, a large proportion of clients were successful in attaining permanent housing, which lends support to the effectiveness of the supported housing approach.

Recovering the Original Fourth Amendment

Historical sources indicate that the concept of Amendment is only a modern judicial invention, not the intended meaning of the text. Common-law sources show there was no broad standard in framing-era search and arrest law. In addition, historical sources show that the Framers were concerned almost exclusively with searches of houses general writs or warrants. Although the Framers abhorred the exercise of discretionary authority by ordinary officers, they were not threatened by warrantless intrusions because the ex officio authority of peace officers was very limited, especially when a house was involved. Thus, because the Framers perceived that warrant authority was the potent form of arrest and search authority, and because they were primarily concerned with the protection of the house and the sphere of domestic privacy associated with the house, they believed that prohibiting legislative authorization of general warrants would suffice to preserve the right to be secure. Moreover, in framing-era law, unlawful conduct by officers was regarded only as a private trespass, not as a form of government illegality. Thus the Framers had no basis for addressing the conduct of warrantless officers in a constitutional provision (and also had no basis for considering exclusion as a consequence of an unlawful search). The reference to searches and seizures in the text did not refer to a relativistic standard; rather that phrasing reflected Coke's earlier use of against reason as a label for a violation of a basic legal principle. James Otis invoked Coke's against reason during the Writs of Assistance Case and his protege John Adams (who recorded Otis's speech) introduced unreasonable into the lexicon of American search and seizure texts when he authored the 1780 Massachusetts Declaration of Rights. Modern reasonableness doctrine is best understood as a judicial adjustment to the post-framing conferral of discretionary arrest and search authority on peace officers, a development which created a novel threat to the security of person and house. The 1914 decision in Weeks v. United States drew upon the late nineteenth century reconception of officer misconduct under color of office as a form of government illegality to extend the Fourth Amendment to warrantless officers. It also constitutionalized the common-law warrant requirement for house searches. The 1925 decision in Carroll v. United States changed direction, however, and facilitated enforcement of Prohibition by reinterpreting unreasonable as a relativistic standard for warrantless searches. Thus, the history of the Fourth Amendment is one of drastic doctrinal and contextual change. The authentic meaning cannot be recovered from the words of the text alone; rather, the intended meaning of the words can only be ascertained by examing the doctrinal and institutional context that shaped the Framers' concern. The differences between the historical and modern contexts are so pronounced that the original meaning cannot provide answers to modern issues. The value of recovering the authentic original meaning lies largely in the larger perspective it provides: we now accord the ordinary officer much more authority than the Framers either intended or expected.