Housing Subsidies Research Articles

Youth Experiencing Homelessness During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Unique Needs and Practical Strategies From International Perspectives

Youth Experiencing Homelessness During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Unique Needs and Practical Strategies From International Perspectives

Subsidized Housing and Health: An Exploratory Study Examining Resident Perspectives on Community Health and Access to Care

Adequate, safe, and affordable housing is an important determinant of health, yet studies on subsidized housing and health are limited in number and scope. This exploratory survey assessed the health conditions, needs, accessibility of services, and health issues perceived as most important by federally-subsidized affordable housing participants in Virginia. Results for residents of public housing complexes, tenants with housing vouchers, and a nationally representative sample are compared. Findings highlight issues related to cost of care, transportation, medication adherence, depression, and asthma. While housing subsidies are intended to reduce economic burden by enabling residents to use financial resources for other purposes (e.g., preventive health care, access to food), findings suggest that participants continue to experience cost-related barriers and poor health.

The Geography of Housing Subsidies

We investigate the heterogeneous impact of the US federal mortgage interest deduction (MID) on households’ location and tenure decisions. We develop a spatial general-equilibrium model at the county level featuring an endogenous itemization of housing subsidies. We find that repealing the MID decreases homeownership rates more strongly in central areas because owner-occupiers migrate to the countryside. Welfare increases because positive externalities arising from less congested housing markets and undistorted tenure decisions outweigh productivity losses. A MID repeal is preferred to an increase of standard tax deductions as implemented in 2018 by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

Evidence-informed interventions and best practices for supporting women experiencing or at risk of homelessness: a scoping review with gender and equity analysis.

While much of the literature on homelessness is centred on the experience of men, women make up over one-quarter of Canada's homeless population. Research has shown that women experiencing homelessness are often hidden (i.e. provisionally housed) and have different pathways into homelessness and different needs as compared to men. The objective of this research is to identify evidence-based interventions and best practices to better support women experiencing or at risk of homelessness. We conducted a scoping review with a gender and equity analysis. This involved searching MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsycINFO and other databases for systematic reviews and randomized trials, supplementing our search through reference scanning and grey literature, followed by a qualitative synthesis of the evidence that examined gender and equity considerations. Of the 4102 articles identified on homelessness interventions, only 4 systematic reviews and 9 randomized trials were exclusively conducted on women or published disaggregated data enabling a gender analysis. Interventions with the strongest evidence included post-shelter advocacy counselling for women experiencing homelessness due to intimate partner violence, as well as case management and permanent housing subsidies (e.g. tenant-based rental assistance vouchers), which were shown to reduce homelessness, food insecurity, exposure to violence and psychosocial distress, as well as promote school stability and child well-being. Much of the evidence on interventions to better support women experiencing homelessness focusses on those accessing domestic violence or family shelters. Since many more women are experiencing or at risk of hidden homelessness, population-based strategies are also needed to reduce gender inequity and exposure to violence, which are among the main structural drivers of homelessness among women.

Research on the Package Feature Selection of Talent Attracting Factors in International Trade in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area

This paper designs a survey questionnaire based on the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area’s demand for talents in international trade, adds job types, filters through package features, and performs feature filtering with the error filter criteria set in this paper, and conducts logistic regression analysis on talent types, so as to realize the classification and dynamic analysis of talents. The dynamic needs of various types of talents in international trade in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area are drawn, and specific measures such as increasing salaries and benefits, reducing living costs, providing housing subsidies, solving children's employment problems, and ensuring quality of life are proposed for the development of international trade talents. Reducing the cost of talent migration can promote them to make more contributions to the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. This will help the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area government to attract outstanding international trade talents and formulate detailed and feasible strategies, which has certain reference significance.

Housing First and Severe Mental Disorders: The Challenge of Exiting Homelessness

We examine the long-term housing trajectories of 543 program participants at the Toronto site of the At Home/Chez-Soi project, a randomized controlled trial of a Housing First (HF) intervention for adults with mental disorders. The average follow-up period for our study was 5.5 years. We find that the HF approach, which includes housing subsidies and support services, was strongly associated with rapid transitions to sustained housing (70.4 percent of HF participants vs. 27.9 percent of treatment as usual participants). Mood disorders with psychotic features and primary psychotic disorders were negatively associated with the rapid and sustained housing trajectory, and alcohol use disorders were positively associated with a rapid then declining housing trajectory. We argue that to understand the long-term impacts of housing programs, research needs to better explore comprehensive and personalized care to support individuals with severe mental disorders.

Housing Is Mental Health Care: A Call for Medicaid Demonstration Waivers Covering Housing.

Housing is critical to enabling people with serious mental illnesses to live successfully in their communities. Yet unlike other essential community-based services, housing cannot be covered under the Medicaid program, which guarantees states federal reimbursement for between 50% and 83% of the cost of services. Instead, service systems rely on federal housing assistance programs and, where available, on state or local housing subsidy programs. Mental health service systems could make housing more widely available if they could use federal Medicaid funds for housing. The federal government has not provided Medicaid reimbursement for housing because of Medicaid's exclusion of "room and board," but it has recently granted Medicaid demonstration waivers that lift a similar statutory prohibition: the institutions for mental disease (IMD) exclusion rule, which bars Medicaid payments for services to individuals ages 21 to 64 in psychiatric institutions. If the government approves demonstration waivers of the IMD exclusion, it should similarly approve demonstrations covering housing for people with serious mental illnesses. If these demonstrations show that providing Medicaid financing for housing improves mental health outcomes and reduces use of more costly services, those results should spur a conversation about modifying Medicaid to allow reimbursement for housing in appropriate circumstances.

An Analysis of Rural Households' Earthquake-Resistant Construction Behavior: Evidence from Pingliang and Yuxi, China.

Due to the lack of earthquake-resistant rural houses, small and medium earthquakes caused massive casualties in rural China. In 2004, China began implementing the Earthquake Rural Housing Safety Project Policy (ERHSPP) to reduce earthquake losses, mainly promoting the adoption of earthquake-resistant structures in rural residents’ self-built houses through subsidies, training of construction craftsmen, and provision of earthquake-resistant housing drawings. We conducted a field survey, collecting 1169 rural households in Pingliang, Gansu Province, and 1501 rural households in Yuxi, Yunnan Province, China. We studied Earthquake-Resistant Construction Behaviors (E-RCB) by the logistic and the ordered logistic regression models. Results show that government housing subsidy promotes E-RCB of rural households; E-RCB was affected by ERHSPP, positively correlated with economic status and housing earthquake damage; E-RCB was negatively correlated with structure danger, house age, and earthquake experience; and housing earthquake damage, not earthquake experience, strikingly promoted E-RCB in rural China. The results could provide suggestions in communication risk strategies for the government. We suggest the local government should promote local acceptable disaster propaganda, provide hierarchical housing subsidies, pay attention to housing seismic supervision, publish earthquake-resistant housing design drawings, and conduct more earthquake-resistant technical training for rural craftsmen.

As disputas, o desenho e a aplicação dos recursos do FGTS entre 1998 e 2017

Resumo Este trabalho analisa as disputas, o desenho e a aplicação dos recursos do FGTS (Fundo de Garantia do Tempo de Serviço) destinados ao financiamento habitacional entre 1998 e 2017. A análise evidencia que o fundo cumpriu uma função central no atendimento habitacional para a população de baixa renda nesse período, especialmente a partir da concessão de subsídios com esse fim, chamados de descontos. A sua criação em 1998 foi seguida por uma expansão dos recursos com essa finalidade. Nos anos 2000, houve uma ampliação desses recursos especialmente com a resolução n. 460 do CCFGTS e o programa Minha Casa Minha Vida. O fundo continuou a subsidiar a habitação social também em meio a um contexto de políticas guiadas pela austeridade no âmbito federal a partir de 2012.

Does the Temporal Pattern of Moving to a Higher-Quality Neighborhood Across a 5-Year Period Predict Psychological Distress Among Adolescents? Results From a Federal Housing Experiment.

Using data from the Moving to Opportunity (MTO) experiment (1994-2002), this study examined how a multidimensional measure of neighborhood quality over time influenced adolescent psychological distress, using instrumental variable (IV) analysis. Neighborhood quality was operationalized with the independently validated 19-indicator Child Opportunity Index (COI), linked to MTO family addresses over 4-7 years. We examined whether being randomized to receive a housing subsidy (versus remaining in public housing) predicted neighborhood quality across time. Using IV analysis, we tested whether experimentally induced differences in COI across time predicted psychological distress on the Kessler Screening Scale for Psychological Distress (n=2,829; meanβ =-0.04 points (standard deviation, 1.12)). The MTO voucher treatment improved neighborhood quality for children as compared with in-place controls. A 1-standard-deviation change in COI since baseline predicted a 0.32-point lower psychological distress score for girls (β=-0.32, 95% confidence interval: -0.61, -0.03). Results were comparable but less precisely estimated when neighborhood quality was operationalized as simply average post-random-assignment COI (β=-0.36, 95% confidence interval: -0.74, 0.02). Effect estimates based on a COI excluding poverty and on the most recent COI measure were slightly larger than other operationalizations of neighborhood quality. Improving a multidimensional measure of neighborhood quality led to reductions in low-income girls' psychological distress, and this was estimated with high internal validity using IV methods.

Moving to Opportunity, or Aging in Place? The Changing Profile of Low Income and Subsidized Households and Where They Live

The profile of households receiving rental assistance has changed over time, yet much of the policy and political dialogue surrounding rental assistance has not. Understanding the changing profile of subsidized households is important to evaluating the role of rental subsidies, particularly in the context of neighborhood access. This paper analyzes how the composition of subsidized households has changed over time, and how this relates to existing measures of neighborhood opportunity. We find that since 2000, the share of subsidized households headed by seniors grew, while the share with children dropped. In particular, households using vouchers used to be young relative to the general population and to households in other housing subsidy programs but have aged rapidly. We also find that current neighborhood amenity measures do not reflect these changes, and we use a national analysis and a case study of southeastern Pennsylvania to test alternative metrics.

November 2020 Placement Ads

November 2020 Placement Ads

Affordable, Energy-Efficient Housing Design for Chile: Achieving Passivhaus Standard with the Chilean State Housing Subsidy

In Chile, it is estimated that the energy demand will continue to increase if substantial energy efficiency measures in housing are not taken. These measures are generally associated with technical and mainly economic difficulties. This paper aims to show the technical and economic feasibility of achieving Passivhaus standard house in Chile, considering the budget of the maximum state subsidy currently available (Chilean Unidad de Fomento (CLF) 2000 ≈ 81,000 USD). The design was simulated in the Passive House Planning Package software to determine if the house could be certified with the selected standard. At the same time, the value of all the items was quantified in order not to exceed the stipulated maximum budget for a house considered as affordable. It was shown that in terms of design it is possible to implement the Passivhaus standard given the current housing subsidy. The designed housing ensures a reduction of 85% in heating demand and a 60% reduction in CO2 emissions during the operation, compared to an average typical Chilean house.

Optimal taxation with home ownership and wealth inequality

We consider optimal taxation in a model with wealth-poor and wealth-rich households, where wealth derives from business capital and home ownership, and investigate the consequences of a rising wealth inequality at steady state on these tax rates. The optimal tax structure includes some taxation of labor, zero taxation of financial and business capital, a housing wealth tax on the wealth-rich households and a housing subsidy on the wealth-poor households. When wealth inequality increases, the optimal balance between labor and housing wealth taxes depends on the source of the increasing wealth.

Residential segregation: The role of inequality and housing subsidies

Residential segregation is a key public policy issue that is driven by economic factors on the one side, and individual attitudes towards ethnic diversity on the other side. We assume a modeling framework that consists of a population of two ethnic groups, a rental market for each neighborhood, and household’s utility which depends on consumption and housing. Accounting for income disparities and heterogeneous preferences for living in ethnically diverse neighborhoods, we examine the residential segregation patterns that occur when households make their neighborhood choice by taking economic and diversity related aspects into account. The investigation reveals that ethnic income disparities and heterogeneous preferences are antagonistic forces such that a certain level of income stratification is the price for residential integration. In light of these findings, we discuss to which extent and under which conditions housing subsidy policies can favor residential integration.

September 2020 Placement Ads

September 2020 Placement Ads

Housing Policy, Monetary Policy, and the Great Recession

Most research on the run-up in home prices before the Great Recession has focused on types of excessive demand—loose lending, foreign savings, loose monetary policy, speculation, bank deregulation, federal housing subsidies, etc. The focus on excess demand led to fatalism about the collapse in homebuilding that began in 2006 and the eventual recession and financial crisis that followed. Regardless of the sources of excess demand, a consensus developed that American spending had become unsustainably high because of a housing bubble and that demand needed to be reduced. Using a broad array of evidence, we find that constrained supply of new housing in key urban centers was the primary trigger for high home prices before the crisis. The recession and the financial crisis were the result of deliberate contractions of demand—both generally and specifically in residential investment—that were neither useful nor necessary. First, tightening monetary policy reduced aggregate spending and encouraged negative sentiment about real estate. Then, policy changes tightened lending standards and depressed housing markets for years after the 2008 financial crisis. A monetary policy regime targeting stable nominal income growth would have dramatically improved the economy during and after 2008.

Formerly Homeless and Other Stakeholder Perspectives of a Permanent Supportive Housing Program in Los Angeles County

In 2012, the Department of Health Services in Los Angeles County created the Housing for Health (HFH) initiative, which provides permanent supportive housing (PSH) and rental subsidies to homeless individuals who are among the highest utilizers of acute care overall and particularly under Medicaid. In addition to housing and rental subsidies, HFH provides intensive case management services and connects clients to a broad range of health, social, and income support services in the community. HFH is a partner of Los Angeles County Whole Person Care Pilot (WPC‐LA), a program implemented under California’s Section 1115 Medicaid Waiver focused on providing care coordination and housing support services to enrollees with complex care needs.We used data from a mixed‐methods evaluation of HFH between 2016 and 2018 that was designed to gauge HFH’s effectiveness and its impact on health service utilization and outcomes in other public service sectors, such as social services, mental health services, and public health. We examined the perspectives of a broad range of PSH stakeholders from interviews on the impact of HFH.Data were collected through semi‐structured in‐depth interviews with 14 key informants, and nine focus groups in which 42 formerly homeless tenants and 29 providers of PSH programs participated. Verbatim transcripts were independently coded by at least two research team members. Emerging patterns and themes were identified using a process of constant comparison analysis across and within distinct data sources.Study participants included current PSH tenants, direct service providers, housing and homeless services program administrators, and multisectoral agency leaders in both public and private sectors.Stakeholders indicated positive impacts of HFH as it has expanded the reach and intensity of PSH. They commented on HFH’s capacity to address housing needs including outreach, intake, engagement, placement, and stabilization. Stakeholders said that HFH’s multisectoral and collaborative approach and use of intensive case management services have enhanced continuity of care with positive effects on tenant outcomes. Reported challenges to HFH implementation were related to the context of extremely limited housing inventory and a workforce not yet sufficient to meet increasing demand with frequent turnover. Systems‐level facilitators, including enhanced communication and accountability practices, were cited as essential to support ongoing implementation and to ensure fidelity of the HFH approach.Stakeholders perceived that HFH was a catalyst for positive change in the administration and delivery of PSH programs and services in Los Angeles.Our findings from senior administrator perspectives point to the importance of cross‐sectoral leadership, and the need to reconcile disparate organizational cultures through enhanced communication and inter‐organizational accountability. Formerly homeless tenant and direct service provider perspectives support the value of adopting person‐centered approaches in the planning and delivery of services across sectors. Finally, the model of partnership provided by HFH and WPC‐LA builds on long‐standing and trusted community providers to support the sustainability of these efforts.The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Revisiting the relationship among housing tenure, affordability and mental health: Do dwelling conditions matter?

Despite growing attention to housing as a social determinant of health, few studies have featured the interplay of its diverse impacts on health. Using the Korea Welfare Panel Study, this study used logistic regression analysis for examining how housing tenure and affordability are associated with depressive symptoms under different physical dwelling conditions among low-income households in Korea. In our findings, renters, compared with homeowners, were more likely to report depressive symptoms, and housing unaffordability was associated with a higher likelihood of having depressive symptoms. When dwelling conditions were considered, housing tenancy, compared with ownership, tended to be associated with depressive symptoms among adequate housing dwellers, whereas housing unaffordability was associated with depressive symptoms mainly among those living in substandard housing conditions. The findings suggest that the linkage of multiple housing problems to psychological well-being is dynamic. Public health policies and housing subsidy programs should, therefore, be designed based on a comprehensive account of not only tenure or income status, but also dwelling conditions.

Beneath the surface: Capital-labor relations, housing and the making of the Bakken boom

In 2014, a 700-square-foot apartment in the City of Williston in North Dakota cost $2,394.00 per month (Grandstand, 2014). Small remote towns situated within Bakken's shale formation have been radically transformed into boomtowns by oil capital's quest for accumulation. Drawn by promises of high paying jobs, wage-laborers have flooded into these towns, growing them exponentially. While much research investigates the empirics of crime, cost of living increases, and other environmental damage, they miss the underlying structures which drive resource boomtowns. Using a Marxist perspective, I argue that we must first understand how capital-labor relations make oil extraction possible. Since oil capital must incentivize workers to relocate, it must substantially raise wages. As a result, high wages in tandem with scare housing inventory have led to significant cost of living increases, prompting oil companies to subsidize housing. Thus, the very condition of Bakken's boomtowns contradict capitals’ impetus to maximize surplus-value as attracting wage-laborers to remote sites of extraction requires high wages and housing subsidies. In this article, I unravel this contradiction as capital's pursuit for surplus-value is limited by increases in the wage-laborer's value of labor power. Thus, oil capital is inherently haphazard in how it treats worker safety.