DESIGNING HOPE: RATIONALES OF MIXED‐INCOME HOUSING POLICY

Rationales used to legitimize forced dispersal and mixed‐income housing policies are socially constructed based on assumptions about concentrated poverty. This study evaluates qualitative data on public housing residents who were in the process of being dispersed as part of a HOPE VI program in order to examine their thoughts about their original home and neighborhood. Residents’ thoughts about their neighborhood are compared to policy rationales. Results indicate that current policy rationales are mostly in line with the goals and motivation of the city but are largely incongruent with the perceptions residents have of their pre‐relocation home and neighborhood. The article concludes with policy recommendations for increasing and incorporating residents’ views into policy design.     

Contributions of the Usage and Affective Experience of the Residential Environment to Residential Satisfaction

The existing literature has documented that housing conditions, neighborhood characteristics, and socioeconomics are important determinants of residential satisfaction. However, the contribution of the actual usage of the residential environment to residential satisfaction has rarely been studied. To help fill in this gap, this study examines the contribution of the usage of housing and neighborhoods as well as the affective residential experience to residential satisfaction. We apply a subjective well-being framework and consider residential satisfaction and residential affective experience as two constituent components of the residential domain subjective well-being. Data were collected in Beijing from November 2011 to June 2012. The results show that home and neighborhood activities significantly affect residential satisfaction; higher levels of valence and activation of daily activities at home and in the neighborhood lead to more residential satisfaction.     

HOMEOWNERSHIP AND NEIGHBORHOOD SATISFACTION AMONG LOW‐ AND MODERATE‐INCOME HOUSEHOLDS

ABSTRACT: Most research on homeownership is conducted on nationally representative samples of homeowners and fails to isolate the unique experience of low‐ and moderate‐income (LMI) homeowners. Given the interest of policymakers in promoting homeownership among LMI households over the past 20 years, along with the apparent role played by risky borrowers—many of whom are low‐income—in the current housing market crisis, it is important to evaluate both economic and social outcomes for this subgroup of homeowners. Using a matched set of LMI owners and renters in the 2007 Community Advantage Program (CAP) panel, we assess the effect of homeownership on neighborhood satisfaction. By including various individual and neighborhood characteristics as covariates, we employ multilevel modeling and propensity score matching to address the nested structure of the data and endogeneity issues. Findings indicate that homeownership is an important predictor of neighborhood satisfaction among LMI households, even when controlling for a host of socioeconomic, demographic, and neighborhood characteristics. This may suggest that homeownership can serve as a viable way to improve neighborhood satisfaction among LMI households. This is important as neighborhood satisfaction is highly associated with overall quality of life.     

ACHIEVING MIXED INCOME COMMUNITIES THROUGH INFILL? THE EFFECT OF INFILL HOUSING ON NEIGHBORHOOD INCOME DIVERSITY

This study analyzes whether residential infill development promotes mixed income communities in the Orlando metropolitan area from 1990 to 2009. Compact development and more diverse housing options realized through infill can alleviate spatial segregation and promote social diversity in communities by attracting diverse new residents into the neighborhood. However, as infill housing reflects neighborhood conditions, the impacts of infill housing on neighborhood income diversity vary depending on neighborhood types. The results show that infill development is only positively associated with neighborhood income diversity in gentrifying communities. Therefore, a more direct guideline or incentive program for infill, which can ensure a broad range of housing prices in infill development, should be implemented to promote mixed income communities through infill.     

Atlanta's Last Demolitions and Relocations: The Relationship Between Neighborhood Characteristics and Resident Satisfaction

Using data from an Atlanta-based longitudinal study following 311 public housing residents relocated between 2009 and 2010 as the city's housing authority demolished its remaining public housing, the purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between changes in relocated residents' satisfaction with home and neighborhood and the socioeconomic, racial composition, and crime characteristics of their destination neighborhood. Consistent with previous research, we find that residents moved to somewhat safer neighborhoods with less poverty than those of the public housing. In addition, we find that residents view their new homes and neighborhoods as improvements over public housing. However, subjective pre- to postmove changes in satisfaction are not driven by changes in neighborhood characteristics (i.e., reductions in poverty and crime), but rather by decreases in perceived social disorder and increases in community attachment. Thus, our findings challenge some of the assumptions of poverty deconcentration. Policy implications are discussed.     

A Tale of Two Cities: Physical Form and Neighborhood Satisfaction in Metropolitan Portland and Charlotte

Problem: Literature advocating compact development and mixed uses frequently claims that this form of development supports a higher quality of life, yet the empirical basis for this claim is weak.

Purpose: I assess the relationship between physical form and quality of life using neighborhood satisfaction as an empirical definition of quality of life.

Methods: I examine the effects of block and neighborhood housing density, land use mix, the mix of housing structure types, and street network connectivity on residents' ratings of neighborhood satisfaction. Using a multilevel dataset that combines individual household information with neighborhood contextual variables, I compare the Charlotte, North Carolina and Portland, Oregon metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), which have very different development patterns and land use policies.

Results and conclusions: At the neighborhood level, I find density and mixed land uses to be associated with higher neighborhood satisfaction in Portland, but lower neighborhood satisfaction in Charlotte. At the block level, however, I find blocks that are exclusively single family detached housing to be associated with higher neighborhood satisfaction in both MSAs. These findings suggest that the influence of compact development and mixed uses on residents' quality of life depends upon the context, and may be sensitive to the spatial scales at which urban form is examined.

Takeaway for practice: Planners should understand that strategies promoting compact development and mixed uses will have different consequences in different contexts, and should pay careful attention to the appropriate spatial scale for implementing such policies. I conclude that compact growth and mixed uses improve quality of life by contributing to higher levels of neighborhood satisfaction, though they may not succeed in low density metropolitan areas. I conclude that in considering such development, planners should: rely on evidence to identify appropriate strategies; learn how to create conditions that foster urban amenities and discourage urban problems; pay attention to factors that complement the appeal of compact and mixed environments; and consider the possibility that the market will not tolerate mixing different housing types at a fine grain for the purpose of achieving higher density and diversity.

Research support: This research was supported by a dissertation research grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of City and Regional Planning, Cornell University.     

Residential mobility in private lower‐cost housing in Bangkok

The literature on residential satisfaction and mobility for Western countries is extensive and has yielded a number of models explaining mobility in the housing market. By studying a large number of residents of private lower‐cost housing estates in Bangkok (Thailand) a model is built explaining residential mobility in low‐income countries. The strongest predictor of mobility is home ownership followed by residential satisfaction itself. This contradicts earlier results in developed countries. Satisfaction with the individual dwelling unit, satisfaction with the environment of the estate and the age of the head of household also, with decreasing strength, influence plans to move.     

THE EFFECTS OF NEIGHBORHOOD CONTEXT ON EVALUATIONS OF POLICE SERVICES

In this paper, the effects of neighborhood racial composition and wealth are compared to the effects of police expenditures per capita and crime rate upon assessments of neighborhood police services in Boston. The results indicate that: (1) there is little correspondence between the level of police expenditures per capita and the level of citizen satisfaction; (2) higher neighborhood crime rates are associated with negative perceptions of neighborhood police performance; and (3) some aspects of neighborhood context even may be more important than crime rates in determining the level of citizen satisfaction with neighborhood police services.     

保障房社区的邻里关系:影响因素与对策建议

伴随着保障房项目的大规模建成与交付使用,我国住房保障工作的重点正逐步转向规划建设与后期管理并重,而保障房社区的邻里关系状态是该小区后期管理水平和效果的集中体现。针对北京市 4 个典型保障房社区居民开展调查访谈,以了解典型保障房社区内居民邻里关系现状;应用 Ordered Logit 模型,对邻里关系的影响因素进行了分析。研究发现:居民在社区内的朋友越多,对邻居的信任程度以及参与社区活动的意愿越高,则其邻里关系越好;而其收入越高,邻里关系反而越差。结合与一线社区管理人员的访谈和研讨,以及对相关国际经验的总结梳理,提出了改善邻里关系的具体对策建议。     

Assessment of barriers to public rental housing exits: Evidence from tenants in Beijing,China

Public rental housing (PRH) exits exert a profound influence on turnover rates, which further impact the public housing principles of fairness and efficiency. However, very few studies have attempted to investigate the tenant's barriers to exit PRH units in Chinese studies. In this paper, using data drawn from a randomly sampled survey of tenants in Beijing during the March 2017, we employ structural equation modeling (SEM) to examine the factors influencing tenant's barriers to exit. We find that housing availability is the most influential factor in determining the tenant's barriers to leave PRH, and residential satisfaction is also considered as a motivation against PRH exits. In addition, residential satisfaction transfers the impact of tenant's perceptions of housing and neighborhood to exit barriers. Especially, the effects of housing availability on exit barriers are higher in some groups, such as elderly, high income households, large-sized families and respondents with long spell of residence. Any program aimed at getting tenants to leave public housing sector needs to reduce their barriers to access to the private rental market and take into consideration the various characteristics of the tenants.     

Neighbourhood and class: a study of three neighbourhoods in Hong Kong

This paper investigates the relationship between neighborhood cohesion and organization and class in Hong Kong. It draws on a survey of 1200 face-to-face interviews in an up-market private housing estate on Hong Kong Island, a large, neither rich nor poor public housing estate in the New Territories and a mixed-use, low-income inner-city neighborhood in Kowloon. Four indexes measure interneighborhood and intraneighborhood differences—namely, attraction to neighborhood, neighboring and psychological sense of community adapted from the Buckner scale of social cohesion, and social organization developed by the author. There are significant differences between the neighborhoods. However, these differences are not duplicated between occupation-defined class within the neighborhoods, although there are some differences based on self-defined social class. The likely explanation lies in the character of the three neighborhoods, government policy, effect of private housing management and the low level of spatial differentiation by income across the city.     

Perceived Risk,Anticipated Regret and Post-purchase Experience in the Real Estate Market: The Case of China

The level of customer satisfaction with real estate is revealed to be low in many countries, and home buyers are even more likely to suffer negative experiences, such as perceived risk and regret, due to the current worldwide depression of property markets. Unlike most previous studies about housing satisfaction which focused on the effect of object housing and neighbourhood attributes, this paper aims to gain more insight into housing experiences from customers’ perspectives, exploring the determinants of anticipated regret and its effect on post-purchase experience. In the case of the property market in China, it was found that perceptions of risk, importance, irreversibility and difficulty in home buying evoked anticipated regret, which in turn aggravated experienced regret and dissatisfaction directly or via upward counterfactual thinking. Moreover, the dimensional structure, antecedents and cross-cultural differences of perceived risk among home buyers were studied.     

THE SUBURBANIZATION OF DECLINE: FILTERING,NEIGHBORHOODS, AND HOUSING MARKET DYNAMICS

This study explores how the locations and characteristics of neighborhoods affected the process of housing filtering in the Orlando metropolitan area during the 2000s. The results show that racial composition was an important determinant of filtering down and that the foreclosure rate and income composition of neighborhoods became more important factors during the housing market bust period. The filtering process tended to be more affected by neighborhood attributes than by changes in the housing market, especially during the housing market bust period. As the filtering down process was not sensitive to the neighborhood location itself, suburban areas were also susceptible to filtering down processes like inner city areas. Moreover, there was a high probability of suburban decline through filtering down during the housing market bust period. These results may be the reflection of recent trends of central city rebound and suburban decline in the Sun Belt.     

住宅产业化背景下用户需求在不同收入群体 的变化分析——基于Kano模型

切实满足用户需求是住宅产业化发展的根本。深入不同收入群体中,有针对性地探索住宅产业化背景下用户对住宅结构-功能的需求变化,则是优化住宅的功能资源配置以及最大化不同收入用户群体对住宅产品满意度的关键。采用 Kano模型与问卷对住宅产业化背景下用户需求进行识别与分类,依据需求满意度的相关指标,提出不同收入用户群体中需求变化的分析模型,结合调研数据分析得到不同收入群体对住宅产品需求的满意度变化结果。研究发现,无论住宅产业化背景下用户需求的 Kano 类别是否对收入变化敏感,需求的满意度总是对收入变化具有敏感性,并且满意度会随收入变化呈现出波动性增长的趋势。研究结果对于未来市场细分环境下住宅产品的研发以及推动我国住宅产业化的发展具有重要的借鉴意义。     

Neighborhood Affordability and Housing Market Resilience

Problem, research strategy, and findings: Although many researchers have examined factors associated with vulnerability to foreclosure, few have investigated the role neighborhood affordability plays in foreclosures in metropolitan areas. In this study, we examine the effects of location affordability (i.e., housing and transportation affordability combined) on resilience to foreclosure in more than 300?U.S. metropolitan areas during the U.S. housing recovery period. Using hierarchical linear regression with changes in zip code–level home foreclosure rates, our findings suggest the relationship between affordability and foreclosure resilience varies according to urban form (central/high-density city versus suburban low-density area) and types of metropolitan housing markets (boom–bust versus strong versus weak). In the national analysis, where location affordability was high, home foreclosure rates dropped substantially in central/high-density areas but not in suburban low-density areas. When we disaggregated the zip codes according to the market type, location affordability contributed to recovery in central cities in strong and weak metros and in the suburbs of boom–bust metros. There was no positive association in the suburbs of strong and weak metros. With improved data, future studies could measure an association between affordability and lower income renter households.

Takeaway for practice: Our study of the affordability crisis that followed the foreclosure crisis shows that planners can foster resilient and affordable housing markets by expanding and densifying affordable neighborhood locations and considering interactions between the costs of housing and transportation. Planners can improve neighborhood affordability with local and regional strategies based on the local residential density and the type of metropolitan housing market.     

EARLY RESIDENT EXPERIENCES AT A NEW MIXED‐INCOME DEVELOPMENT IN CHICAGO

ABSTRACT: Mixed‐income development is an increasingly popular poverty deconcentration strategy in the United States but there have been few in‐depth studies about the experiences of residents once they move in to the new housing developments. This article explores the early experiences of residents of all income levels who have moved into a new mixed‐income development on the south side of Chicago. In‐depth interviews have been conducted with 46 residents of the development, including 23 former public housing residents. Interviews were also conducted with a comparison group of 69 public housing residents who did not move to the development. I find that public housing movers appear to be a substantially different group than non‐movers. I find that overall satisfaction with the new development is quite high among residents of all income levels. Early social relations are limited, particularly across income levels, and there are key barriers to interaction, such as physical design, stigma and assumptions based on class and housing status, and segregated associational structures.     

Residential satisfaction among young people in post-socialist countries: the case of Serbia

Change in labor markets, extended education period and economic instability are negatively influencing housing accessibility of young adults. In post-socialist countries, such as Serbia, the biggest issues are the lack of supply volume and diversity of government subsidized housing, as well as the soaring prices of the newly built homes. As a result, young people are relying on the unregulated private rental market or their families to help them enter homeownership and acquire residential independence. There is an apparent need for affordable housing or policies which are catering to young people’s needs. The relevant body of research has been using residential satisfaction approach to provide an evaluation of the variety of housing available to young tenants. Hence, the primary purpose of this paper is to identify the factors which are significantly related or can predict the higher residential satisfaction and can be beneficial to the future policy makers in Serbia. To assess the residential satisfaction, following variables were included: socioeconomic characteristics, residential status, current housing characteristics, problems faced in the current dwelling, housing attribute preferences, privacy perception, dwelling proximity, neighborhood attachment, as well as overall residential satisfaction. The findings indicate that young people in Serbia had average levels of satisfaction with their housing despite the various problems and lack of privacy they were facing in the apartments. Higher residential satisfaction in this research was significantly predicted by the marital status of our respondents (single people were more satisfied), homeownership tenancy status, independent living arrangement, larger apartment size, greater levels of privacy and higher neighborhood attachment.     

Revenge Of The Property Owners: Community Development and the Politics of Property

ABSTRACT: This study examines the conflict between inner city property owners and lower income tenants for control of neighborhood development agendas and community-based organizations. Utilizing a case study of Minneapolis and St. Paul, the authors investigated neighborhood conflicts over community revitalization. In a number of neighborhoods in the two cities, the community organization has come to be dominated by property owners espousing an “ideology of property” hostile to affordable housing. This has led to tension and conflict between neighborhood organizations pursuing owner interests and community development corporations focusing on low income housing.     

OUT OF THE PROJECTS,STILL IN THE HOOD: THE SPATIAL CONSTRAINTS ON PUBLIC‐HOUSING RESIDENTS' RELOCATION IN CHICAGO

ABSTRACT: Public housing, usually located in predominantly poor, minority neighborhoods, has long been associated with concentrated poverty and spatially constraining opportunities for upward mobility. The federal government created HOPE VI in 1992 to transform the physical and social shape of public housing, demolishing existing projects and replacing them with mixed‐income developments. To accomplish this public‐housing residents are relocated with housing voucher subsidies to the private market and only a small portion will be able to return to the new mixed income developments. To what extent do these voucher subsidies simply reinforce a stratified housing market by limiting the types of neighborhoods available to former public‐housing residents? Using spatial analytic techniques, this study examines the spatial patterns and neighborhood conditions of voucher housing and how these patterns link to public‐housing relocatees’ destinations. Findings indicate that voucher housing tends to be clustered in poor African‐American neighborhoods where the majority of relocated public‐housing residents settle. Thus, there appear to be spatial constraints on relocatees’ residential options.     

LIMITED EXPOSURE: CHILDREN'S ACTIVITIES AND NEIGHBORHOOD EFFECTS IN THE GAUTREAUX TWO HOUSING MOBILITY PROGRAM

ABSTRACT: Housing mobility programs intend to improve the well‐being of low‐income families by changing the neighborhood environment in which they live, and thereby creating access to a new set of opportunities and resources. Using data collected in a study of the Gautreaux Two (G2) Housing Mobility program, which offered housing vouchers to public housing residents in Chicago to move to lower‐poverty and less segregated “opportunity” neighborhoods, this article explores families’ access to programs and services for their children in the neighborhoods where they move. The analysis is based on a sample of 46 families who moved through the G2 program. Qualitative in‐depth interviews were conducted with mothers in four waves, which started when the family still lived in public housing. The results show that almost three‐quarters of the families utilized activities for their children in the baseline neighborhoods, but mothers also expressed concerns about the safety and lack of program variety available in these disadvantaged neighborhoods. After moving through the G2 program, only one‐third of the children in these families are using activities. The decline in activity participation is especially steep for children in families that move to areas outside of the city. Although few mothers are concerned with safety or the variety of programs available, several report barriers to activities for children in the new neighborhood, including fewer programs for low‐income children, high cost, transportation difficulties, and issues finding daycare or preschool for younger children. Some children continue to use activities in the old neighborhood and some families end up making subsequent moves to nonqualifying neighborhoods. These findings suggest that activity participation is important for many low‐income families, and losing access to these activities upon moving through the G2 program may limit children's exposure to the new neighborhood and contribute to subsequent moves.