Stability,advocacy and voice: opportunities and challenges in resident-led preservation of affordable housing

Abstract

The role of safe, stable affordable housing has been found to play an outsized role in the ability of residents to access opportunity. However, low-income and moderate-income households face disproportionate impacts of changes in urban neighbourhoods, including poor conditions, evictions and rising rents that threaten that stability. Over the past decade, the deep subsidies that created or redeveloped affordable housing between the late 1960s and 1980s have expired, putting not only the residents of those buildings. Meanwhile, market-affordable housing is at risk due to increasing market pressure in appreciating neighbourhoods. In Washington, DC a combination of programmes, laws and traditions have created a tenant-led preservation policy that has preserved the affordability of tens of thousands of units since the early 1980s. This paper investigates DC’s tenant-based preservation policy to understand the preservation challenges and opportunities for low-income and moderate-income residents in changing communities.     

Preserving Community through Radical Collaboration: Affordable Housing Preservation Networks in Chicago,Washington, DC,and Denver

Collaborative planning efforts to address complex problems such as affordable housing and climate change traditionally manifest as government-led processes meant to gain legitimacy and engage with multiple types of expertise. These types of processes, however, can leave nonprofit actors constrained by the policy priorities of government-led collaborations due to their ability to reproduce existing power relations. Using a qualitative case-study approach of affordable housing preservation networks in Chicago, Washington, DC, and Denver, we argue that preservation of affordable housing can benefit from what we call radical collaboration. We define radical collaboration as an animated network of actors working towards a shared frame of collective action. It is an approach, often led by community-oriented non-governmental organizations, that seeks to transform the ways disadvantaged groups access the city. Actors in the collaboration bring diverse resources that include funding, data, regulatory power, and portfolio-wide information to solve building-level and broader policy challenges.     

One step ahead of the bulldozer: historic preservation in Houston,Texas

Community development corporations (CDCs) are often at the forefront of providing affordable housing and social services, restoring disinvested communities, and rebuilding neighborhoods. Most CDCs work in older, inner-city communities that, given their age and location, likely contain older and historic buildings. Thus, there is a seemingly logical overlap between community developers’ target neighborhoods and the tools, strategies, and resources associated with historic preservation. This article uses a qualitative case study of Houston’s Avenue CDC to explore how and why community developers use preservation within the context of a high-growth city. For more than two decades, Avenue has worked in three core neighborhoods in an effort to stave off gentrification via teardowns and townhome redevelopment. The findings show that, for community developers in growing cities, carefully crafted preservation strategies may be a way to challenge the forces of gentrification, displacement, and wholesale physical destruction.     

Prospects for walkable, mixed-income neighborhoods: insights from U.S. developers

In the U.S. today, there is a significant danger that walkable communities are becoming unaffordable to low and even moderate-income residents. This paper reports on the results of a survey of affordable housing developers that was conducted to provide a better understanding of what kinds of strategies could be used to substantially increase the prevalence of walkable, mixed-income neighborhoods from the point of view of developers. Thirty-four developers from around the U.S. were interviewed by telephone in November and December, 2010. Five themes emerged from the survey: the need for financing and access to capital and subsidy; the need for reform of financial regulation; the need for reform of land use regulation; the need for incentives; and the need for better communication and networking. Responses to the survey underscored the frustrations affordable housing developers are having with development more generally, and how those frustrations are amplified when trying to locate affordable housing in walkable, mixed-income neighborhoods. The paper concludes by suggesting strategies that could be employed to help promote walkable, mixed-income neighborhoods, beyond the obvious need for better access to capital: support for research that focuses on the benefits of mixed-income neighborhoods; documentation and illumination of best practices; and the fostering of communication and partnerships among a diverse set of advocates.     

旧城更新中经济适用房安居困境的制度反思

通过对旧城中低收入家庭经济适用房安居困境的分析,揭示经济适用房制度上的种种缺失,促使经济适用房由公共物品向非公共物品嬗变,并因此具有市场竞争性与排他性,成为社会利益群体博弈的对象。其根源在于政府职能的扭曲,致使经济适用房不是由政府主导,而是受制于开发商。解决经济适用房制度困境的核心在于政府职能的回归,即建构以政府为主导的建设与管理模式。此外,经济适用房制度的修正与完善需要通过整个社会各利益群体的努力才能完成。     

The Limits of Housing Investment as a Neighborhood Revitalization Tool: Crime in New York City

Problem, research strategy, and findings: Local residents often oppose place-based affordable housing on the grounds that such housing will increase crime and decrease property values. New York City has actually used affordable housing investment as a neighborhood revitalization tool, leading to a positive impact on neighborhood property values. Households in distressed neighborhoods consistently cite crime as a problem, but we know little about the impact of housing investments on crime. Using a unique set of point-specific data on affordable housing and crime locations between 2002 and 2008 in New York City, I estimate a set of regression models to identify the effect that affordable housing investments have on crime on the block where they are situated. I find little evidence that affordable housing investments either reduce or increase crime on New York City blocks, suggesting there are limits to the revitalization effects of these subsidies and that crime fears about subsidized housing are unwarranted.

Takeaway for practice: Cities with tight rental markets such as New York should continue to invest in affordable housing construction. However, these cities need to find ways to expand housing options in higher-income, less-distressed neighborhoods, or they risk exacerbating concentrated poverty and further subjecting low-income households to unsafe living environments.     

Inclusionary zoning and affordable housing in Sydney

Focus in this paper is placed on the issue of inclusionary zoning and developer contributions to provide affordable housing in the City West and Green Square urban redevelopment projects. Both are ambitious inner city urban renewal projects which form key parts of the New South Wales government's urban consolidation policy and also seek to maintain a social mix through the provision of social (i.e. affordable) housing.     

The Effects of Revitalization on Public Housing Residents: A Case Study of the Atlanta Housing Authority

This research uses administrative data to examine the long-term socioeconomic status of households that relocated from public housing projects in Atlanta as a result of mixed-income revitalization. The research spans 7 years, covering the period before relocation and demolition had begun and ending after mixed-income redevelopment was completed. Residents who lived in three public housing projects that were revitalized are compared to a control group of residents who lived in three projects that were not revitalized, showing that mixed-income revitalization greatly accelerated the residential mobility of public housing residents and that households displaced by revitalization did not experience a statistically significant loss of housing assistance. Households that relocated by using vouchers or by moving to mixed-income revitalized communities experienced significant improvements in their socioeconomic status, and they moved to higher quality neighborhoods. Additionally, their long-run socioeconomic status was similar to the status of households who moved from housing projects voluntarily, i.e., not in response to a planned demolition. This is one of few empirical studies of the effects of HOPE VI revitalization on public housing residents, and its conclusions argue against the elimination of funding for HOPE VI as called for in the president's budget for 2006.     

Toward a Theory of Gentrification A Back to the City Movement by Capital,not People

Consumer sovereignty hypotheses dominate explanations of gentrification but data on the number of suburbanites returning to the city casts doubt on this hypothesis. In fact, gentrification is an expected product of the relatively unhampered operation of the land and housing markets. The economic depreciation of capital invested in nineteenth century inner-city neighborhoods and the simultaneous rise in potential ground rent levels produces the possibility of profitable redevelopment. Although the very apparent social characteristics of deteriorated neighborhoods would discourage redevelopment, the hidden economic characteristics may well be favorable. Whether gentrification is a fundamental restructuring of urban space depends not on where new inhabitants come from but on how much productive capital returns to the area from the suburbs.     

NATIVITY,ETHNICITY, AND RESIDENTIAL RELOCATION: THE EXPERIENCE OF HMONG REFUGEES AND AFRICAN AMERICANS DISPLACED FROM PUBLIC HOUSING

ABSTRACT: This article focuses on how the experiences of refugee public housing residents differ from those of other public housing residents when they participate in housing dispersal programs. An analysis of the spatial resettlement patterns and survey responses of Hmong and African‐American public housing residents who were involuntarily relocated from public housing in Minneapolis, MN indicates the extent to which residents resettled in ethnically concentrated neighborhoods and their satisfaction with their new housing arrangements and neighborhoods. Research results suggest that Hmong did not settle in ethnically concentrated neighborhoods to the same extent as African Americans after relocation, and experienced lower levels of satisfaction in their new housing arrangements and neighborhoods. These findings indicate that the outcomes for residents involved in housing dispersal programs may depend in part on nativity status.     

Inclusionary zoning and affordable housing in Sydney

Abstract

Focus in this paper is placed on the issue of inclusionary zoning and developer contributions to provide affordable housing in the City West and Green Square urban redevelopment projects. Both are ambitious inner city urban renewal projects which form key parts of the New South Wales government's urban consolidation policy and also seek to maintain a social mix through the provision of social (i.e. affordable) housing.     

Citizen Participation in Housing Requisition in Shanghai

The changing regulatory regime in Shanghai requires residents' participation to approve housing requisition decisions for inner-city redevelopment projects. Such policy reform creates a new discourse for urban redevelopment and housing requisition schemes. This article examines how and to what extent government authorities shape citizen participation in residential relocation and housing requisition in Shanghai. The analysis of this regulation regime helps us to better understand the importance of the role of residents in the decision-making of inner-city redevelopment. This article concludes by discussing policy implications of the regulations, including equitable outcomes particularly benefiting disadvantaged groups of people.     

Hoping for more: redeveloping U.S. public housing without marginalizing low-income residents?

Urban restructuring policies have uprooted residents and dismantled communities. Previous studies focus on housing redevelopment that minimizes the fraction of housing units left for poor residents and on interviewing residents only once the redevelopment has been announced. By contrast, this paper examines how residents over time experienced the HOPE VI redevelopment of the Orchard Park public housing project in Boston, which sought to preserve a low-income community. Using official records and a unique set of interviews with residents before and after redevelopment, we find marked declines in crime and increased residential satisfaction, which are attributed to changes in tenant composition. The redevelopment process reduced the total number of public housing units yet maintained the vast majority of housing for poor families while creating a new social mix. The findings suggest that to more fully capture the impacts of restructuring, existing theory must be expanded to consider who is displaced and how poverty is deconcentrated.     

广州金沙洲城市保障房社区研究——“日常生活实践”的视角

住房问题已经成为中国城市所面临的主要问题。进入新世纪,保障性住房建设大规模展开,保障房社区作为一种独特的新社会空间,受到广泛关注。基于米歇尔·德塞都的日常生活实践理论,本文对广州金沙洲新社区展开实证研究,探讨当前中国城市保障房社区居民的日常生活机制。研究主要采用典型案例、实地观察、半结构式访谈、深度访谈相结合的综合研究方法,从“日常生活实践”的角度探讨地方政府、市场和保障房社区居民的“结构化”互动,梳理和解析居民日常行为规律。研究表明,保障房作为地方政府为推进劳动力再生产而实施的一种空间战略,目的在于解决“集体消费”下的城市问题。在此背景下,保障房社区居民面临着社会、经济和文化上的“边缘化”及“空间锁定”问题。作为应对,社区居民采取各种生活“战术”予以应对：生活回市区、巧妙改造、隐性就业、维护社交网络、积极生活等。本文以此为保障房研究提供新视角,并为相关政策的制定和实施提供参考和借鉴。     

Florida's Planning Requirements and Affordability for Low-Income Households

Growth management states in the USA, such as Florida, Oregon, and Washington, require their local jurisdictions to plan for an adequate supply of housing for all current and future residents, including low-income households. This research uses regression analysis to test the relationship between the strength of local comprehensive plans toward affordable housing and subsequent changes in housing affordability for low-income households. Semi-structured interviews with local planners about their perceptions of the efficacy of local plans provide insight into the quantitative findings. The initial plans passed after Florida's Growth Management Act were not associated with subsequent changes in housing affordability, but more recent plans were. Planners in a number of jurisdictions indicated that Florida's planning mandate increased awareness among public officials of affordable housing issues and the tools available to address them, despite the state's weak oversight.     

The Politics of Poverty Deconcentration and Housing Demolition

Concentrated poverty is the organizing framework for much housing policy at the federal and local levels. This article examines the effect of concentrated poverty on the politics of housing and community development at the local level. A case study of the Minneapolis‐Saint Paul metropolitan area suggests that in high‐poverty neighborhoods efforts to deconcentrate lead to political battles reminiscent of the urban renewal era in which poor and minority residents fight to save their housing and communities from slum clearance. For central cities, the deconcentration of poverty as a policy objective introduces a new set of criteria against which community development efforts are judged, making the development of subsidized and affordable housing more difficult to initiate or sustain. At the regional level, concerns about the concentration of poverty can create new alliances of resistance to affordable housing and even justify demolition in older, inner‐ring suburbs.     

Repurposing a historic school building as a teacher’s village: exploring the connection between school closures,housing affordability,and community goals in a gentrifying neighborhood

ABSTRACT

The redevelopment of urban school buildings of historical value has the potential to contribute to the needs of current residents. Using a case study from Chicago, IL—where more than 50 schools in primarily minority and low- and moderate-income neighborhoods were closed in 2013—this article shows how a community group “Community As A Campus” (CAAC) sought to repurpose a former school site for community purposes in an already mixed-used, amenity-rich, and walkable area. CAAC advocated for housing for educators in the gentrifying neighborhood of West Town. The project, however, created tensions within residents from density related to market-rate units. This paper argues that the future of historic buildings to be preserved sustainably would depend on the ability of local leaders to find a balance between economic and community goals.     

Opportunity or Loss? Health Impacts of Estate Renewal and the Relocation of Public Housing Residents

Estate renewal programs can have positive and negative impacts on the health and wellbeing of public housing residents. We aimed to investigate the potential health impacts of relocating residents as part of the redevelopment of a public housing estate in South Western Sydney, New South Wales. In-depth interviews were undertaken with public housing residents as well as with informants from local health and housing authorities. We found that a range of current and potential health impacts were linked to individual residents’ responses to the processes of estate redevelopment and relocation, housing and neighbourhood quality, residents’ social networks and access to social and health care services. Improved housing quality and maintenance, a personalised approach to relocation and equitable access to services were identified to contribute to positive health outcomes.     

Planning for Mixed Use: Affordable for Whom?

Problem, research strategy, and findings: Mixed-use zoning is widely advocated to increase density; promote active transportation; encourage economic development; and create lively, diverse neighborhoods. We know little, however, about whether mixed-use developments affect housing affordability. We question the impact of mixed-use zoning on housing affordability in Toronto (Canada) between 1991 and 2006 in the face of waning government support for affordable housing and increasing income inequality due to the occupational restructuring accompanying a shift to a knowledge-based economy. We fi nd that housing in mixed-use zones remained less affordable than housing in the rest of the city and in the metropolitan region. High-income service occupations experienced improved affordability while lower wage service, trade, and manufacturing occupations experienced stagnant or worsening affordability. Housing in mixed-use zones is increasingly affordable only to workers already able to pay higher housing costs. Our findings are limited to Canada's largest city but have lessons for large North American cities with similar urban economies and housing markets.

Takeaway for practice: Mixed-use developments may reduce housing affordability in core areas and inadvertently reinforce the sociospatial inequality resulting from occupational polarization unless supported by appropriate affordable housing policies. Planners should consider a range of policy measures to offset the unintentional outcomes of mixed-use developments and ensure affordability within mixed-use zones: inclusionary zoning, density bonuses linked to affordable housing, affordable housing trusts, and other relevant methods.     

31 Flavors of Inclusionary Zoning: Comparing Policies From San Francisco,Washington, DC,and Suburban Boston

Problem: Over the past several decades, inclusionary zoning (IZ) has become an increasingly popular, but sometimes controversial, local means of producing affordable housing without direct public subsidy. The conversation about IZ has thus far largely ignored variations in the structure of IZ policies, although these variations can impact the amount of affordable housing produced and the effects of IZ on production and prices of market rate housing.

Purpose: We provide a detailed comparison of the ways in which IZ programs have been structured in the San Francisco and Washington metropolitan areas and in suburban Boston.

Methods: We create a unique dataset on IZ in these three regions by combining original data collected from several previous surveys. We use these data to compare the prevalence, structure, and affordable housing output of local IZ programs.

Results and conclusions: In the San Francisco Bay Area, IZ programs tend to be mandatory and apply broadly across locations and structure types, while including cost offsets and alternatives to onsite construction. In the Washington, DC, area, most IZ programs are also mandatory, but have broader exemptions for small developments and low-density housing. IZ programs in the Boston suburbs exhibit the most heterogeneity. They are more likely to be voluntary and to apply only to a narrow range of developments, such as multifamily housing, or within certain zoning districts. The amount of affordable housing produced under IZ varies considerably, both within and across the regions. There is some evidence that IZ programs that grant density bonuses and exempt smaller projects produce more affordable housing.

Takeaway for practice: Although variation in IZ program structures makes it hard to predict effectiveness, IZ's adaptability to local circumstances makes it a particularly attractive policy tool. IZ programs can easily be tailored to accommodate specific policy goals, housing market conditions, and residents' preferences, as well as variations in state or local regulatory and political environments.

Research support: This article is adapted from a longer working paper written with financial support from the Center for Housing Policy, the research affiliate of the National Housing Conference.