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.     

Rental security and the property manager in a tenant’s search for a private rental property

Abstract

This article builds on current understandings of rental security by exploring the important role of the property manager in a tenant's search for a private rental property. In the absence of any legislated right to housing, as is the case in many Anglophone societies, the decision to accept or reject a tenancy application is in the hands of the landlord, and, in many cases, the property manager, who provides expert advice to the landlord. A qualitative content analysis of blogs featured on two national websites advertising rental properties in Australia, identifies six aspects of interactions between the tenant and property manager argued to impact a tenant’s ability to secure a rental property: responsibility, making an impression, established relationships, honesty, flexibility and creative thinking. Findings suggest that understandings of rental security need to extend beyond a tenant’s experience while leasing and must incorporate experiences during the search for a private rental property.     

The quasi-market based re-regulation: effects of setting housing association rents in England

This paper outlines the current structure of housing association rents in England and examines critically the social rent-setting policy dilemmas. The paper charts the marked change of direction seen since the 1980s, with a switch from a deregulated approach giving housing associations freedom from central control within a clear accounting framework to set rents at least to cover costs, to a more regulated rent-setting system based on individual property values and local earnings levels. Using rental data from housing associations’ Regulatory and Statistical Returns, the study shows that social rents are now set on quasi-market principles that simulate some aspects of a real market reflecting the characteristics of the property, but continuing to be sub-market reflecting the lower household income of social tenants. However, the constraints of the rent-setting formula reduce the capacity of housing associations to undertake proper maintenance and improvement of existing stock. This will become a particular issue for those in London and the North of England where rents now only just cover operational costs.     

公共租赁房居民入住满意度实证研究

从政府政策、规划建设、居住条件和居民满意度四个维度构建模型;以沈阳市丽水新城小区为例,实证分析沈阳市公租房居民满意度现状和影响因素;针对公租房准入制度和分配方式、公租房所在位置和建筑质量、公租房户型设计和物业服务等关键因素,提出提升居民入住满意度的建议。     

Struggles and opportunities at the platform interface: tenants’ experiences of navigating shared room housing using digital platforms in Sydney

Digital platforms have shaped the ways of navigating and occupying shared housing properties in the private rental market. Online platforms reconfigure the geography of housing searches and allow potential tenants to identify and enquire about shared properties while transcending local and national boundaries. Urban scholarship has viewed these platforms as real-time, fine-grained, big datasets for investigating housing markets. However, limited attention has been given to tenants’ experiences of using online platforms, and the extent to which these platforms facilitate access to housing. Drawing on interviews with tenants [n?=?35] in Sydney, this paper explores tenants’ experiences of searching, negotiating and securing shared room housing advertised on digital platforms. The findings highlight that shared housing digital platforms operate on the logic of peer-to-peer interaction between landlords and tenants via user-generated listings. These platforms allow tenants to compare rental prices, locations and characteristics of shared properties through ‘computerised algorithms’. Shared housing tenants, nonetheless, face a series of challenges, especially related to misrepresentation of property conditions, fake profile identity of advertisers, upward pressure on rental prices and high competition for listed properties, all of which influence their housing search and living experiences. Digital platforms emerge as complex socio-technical assemblages that are difficult to regulate as city authorities struggle to formulate effective mechanisms to govern technology-led social change. The paper provides valuable insights into housing informality and tenant exploitation at the platform interface and calls for platform governance.

     

Motives for Investments in Housing Rehabilitation among Private Landlords under Rent Control

In economic studies of the private rental sector of the housing market, and in political debates on housing policy, it is often assumed that private landlords are basically guided by rational economic motives. In this paper, which is based on a Danish study of housing rehabilitation activity among private landlords under rent control, it is shown that different groups of landlords exist who have many other motives for buying and maintaining rental property than those assumed in economic theory. It is concluded that private landlords do not behave as economic, rational and efficient actors as is often assumed, and that an understanding of these structures of landlordism is essential to an assessment of the role of private landlords in housing supply, and to an elaboration of public programmes for supporting housing rehabilitation in the private rental sector.     

我国中低收入家庭住房政策改革诌见

通过文献分析法、比较研究法,总结和分析了具有代表性的欧美国家的中低收入家庭住房保障体系,其主要形式为:供给补贴、需求补贴、控租金、建立租赁市场、建立金融支撑体系。我国当前应通过租赁市场、税收杠杆、贷款保险及中介服务体系的建立和公积金改革来加快中低收入人群住房保障体制的建设和发展。     

基于动态贝叶斯博弈的市场化租赁住房的三方协调监管研究

结合住房租赁市场的现状和特点,从租赁住房利益相关者的角度对政府、住房租赁企业和消费者之间的关系进行研究,有利于加强对租赁住房市场的监管。根据三者掌握的租赁住房信息的严重不对称性,创新性地建立了动态贝叶斯博弈模型,通过求解精炼贝叶斯均衡策略分析影响各方策略选择的因素。结果表明：政府加强检查、加大对住房租赁企业的惩罚力度和增加对低质量住房的补贴,减少消费者选择租赁住房的成本或增加其选择高质量住房的收益,降低住房租赁企业提供低质量住房的收益等措施均有利于提高租赁住房的质量。利用Matlab进行模拟仿真分析,为提高租赁住房的质量提出针对性建议。     

BOT模式下公租房产权激励机制探讨

民间资本不愿意投资公租房项目的主要原因是项目投资回报率低。为了以BOT模式成功引入民间资本参与公租房投资建设,有必要建立相应的投资激励机制。产权激励是最主要的投资激励手段之一,因此本文在建立公租房项目收益函数的基础上,定量分析产权激励政策的激励效果,为促进我国公租房建设提供政策参考。     

公共租赁住房综合定价模型研究

公共租赁住房是我国住房保障体系的重要组成部分,其定价机制是否合理将直接影响保障功能的实现。本文从公共租赁住房属性出发,构建综合定价模型,提出应当以住房负担能力指数测算基准租金,以成本、区位因素修正,通过保障性指标、持续性指标检验,实现科学的定价机制。     

The Effects of Vacancy Control

This article examines changes between 1980 and 1990 in the number of rental units and the demographic composition of tenants in four California cities that adopted rent control with vacancy control provisions. Six border areas within the four cities were compared to border areas of adjoining cities that did not have vacancy control. A spatial lag regression model was constructed to estimate the changes in regional and neighborhood components in addition to vacancy control policies. Vacancy control contributed to lower rents and longer tenure by tenants compared to non-vacancy-controlled areas. There were also fewer rental units in part because of a shift from rental housing to owner-occupied housing.     

Constructing Renters as a Threat to Neighbourhood Safety

The physical and social organization of the urban environment plays a central role in the formation of individual perceptions of crime. This paper examines how the presence of rental housing is constructed as a risk to neighbourhood safety by urban homeowners. The presence of the ideology of homeownership fosters a social context in which renters are constructed as disinvested and irresponsible individuals. As a result, renters are perceived to pose both an indirect and direct threat to the safety of a neighbourhood. Data from 23 semi-structured interviews with urban homeowners are used to illustrate this process. The paper concludes by considering how these perceptions adversely affect tenants and perpetuate spatial patterns of inequality.     

从房价收入比和住房租售比看房价的合理性

通过对房价收入比和住房租售比的理论分析,建立了相应的计算模型;并引用实际数据进一步分析一个地区的房价和租金的合理性,从而对房地产开发投资和消费起到适当的引导作用。     

Housing supply and residential segregation in Ireland

The article examines the role of housing supply in ethnic diversity and the residential segregation of Asian, African and eastern European immigrants from Irish nationals in Ireland. Housing supply is defined as the proportions of new housing, private rental accommodation and social housing among all housing units in an electoral district. Multivariate regressions reveal that, among all three housing supply variables, the proportion of private rentals had the largest effect on ethnic diversity and immigrant— Irish segregation. Areas with higher proportions of private rental units were more ethnically diverse, had greater presences of Africans, Asians and eastern Europeans (as opposed to high concentrations of Irish nationals) and exhibited greater integration between each of the three immigrant groups and Irish nationals. The article concludes with a discussion of immigrant assimilation and questions whether the patterns of residential integration observed would further facilitate other forms of social inclusion for immigrants in Irish society.     

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SELECTED HOUSEHOLD CHARACTERISTICS AND HOUSING IN THE UNITED STATES

This article examines the influence of changes in American households (i.e., the phenomenal increase in single-parent families and one-person households, race/ethnicity, household income, family size and structure) on the housing market. Survey research data indicate that many families with children, especially large minority and female-headed families which are disproportionately represented among the poor, suffer severe housing problems. After discussing future housing needs in the United Slates based upon alternative Census Bureau projections of household formation, several suggestions are made for increasing the supply of inexpensive family rental housing, for reducing restrictive rental practices against families with children, and for facilitating homeownership among lower-income families.     

Housing Tenure and Neighbourhood Social Capital

Prior research finds a positive association between social capital and community well-being, ranging from decreased crime to greater local economic development and resiliency. Using a nationally representative sample from Canada, this study explores the specific impact of housing tenure (homeownership vs. renting) on three forms of neighbourhood social capital: bonding (trust, exchanges among neighbours and sense of belonging to one’s community), bridging (participation in local organizations) and linking social capital (voting in municipal elections). Findings suggest a positive association between homeownership and forms of bonding social capital and, to a lesser degree, linking social capital, but no clear effect on bridging social capital. Length of residence, having children at home, education, being a visible minority and region also emerged as significant in many models. We argue that exploring further housing stabilization and community-building efforts among rental properties – both public and private – might yield important social capital returns.     

上海地区公共租赁住房绿色设计与实践

公共租赁住房作为保障性住房的重要组成部分,其建设应以“节能省地、保护环境”为导向,在满足居住要求的前提下,提高住区的生活品质,降低建筑全生命周期的资源和能源消耗.本文以上海地区公共租赁住房为研究对象,分析公共租赁住房实施绿色技术的特点,并以上海南站地区公共租赁住房项目为例,重点分析其采用的绿色建筑技术及增量成本,对上海地区公共租赁住房绿色建筑的发展具有可借鉴性和示范意义.     

In search of profit: housing association investment in private rental housing

The traditional mission of housing associations in England is to provide non-profit housing let at sub-market rents to low-income and disadvantaged households. And yet in recent years, large ‘property developer housing associations’ have begun to invest in for-profit private rental homes let at market rents. Despite long waiting lists for their accommodation, these housing associations are mainly letting their for-profit rental homes to middle-income tenants rather than their traditional low-income clientele. Drawing on a ‘historical institutional’ conceptual framework, and combining structural and ‘agency’ explanations, this paper explores the reasons for this new trend. It argues that investment by large developer housing associations in for-profit and more upmarket rental homes will become increasingly important relative to their non-profit social housing. Over time, this ‘partial recalibration’ of their landlord role is likely to gradually transform the institutional rules, everyday practices and norms that shape their behaviour.     

DAWN OF THE DEAD CITY: AN EXPLORATORY ANALYSIS OF VACANT ADDRESSES IN BUFFALO,NY 2008–2010

ABSTRACT: This article examines residential vacancy patterns in Buffalo, NY, using data from a unique data set. It includes variables from HUD Aggregate USPS Administrative Data on Address Vacancies, the American Community Survey (ACS) 5‐year estimates for 2005–2009, housing choice voucher (HCV) records of local public housing agencies, and municipal in rem property records. Multiple regression is used to identify significant relationships between vacancy patterns, socioeconomic characteristics, and institutional factors. The findings from this analysis suggest that the percent of vacant residential properties increases in census tracts with elevated poverty rates, higher percentages of renters receiving rental assistance, and long‐term vacancies. They also suggest that the percent of abandoned residential properties increases in census tracts with highly concentrated black populations, elevated poverty rates, long‐term vacancies, and higher percentages of business addresses. We conclude that these relationships are unique to older core cities experiencing systemic population and job losses. These cities struggle with a distinct type of long‐term vacant and abandoned structures, which we label zombie properties. They can be contrasted with vacant and abandoned properties in transitional or regenerating areas. We offer recommendations for further analysis of zombie properties in these urban settings.     

The credit crunch and subsidized low-income housing: the UK and US experience compared

This paper examines how the mortgage crisis and subsequent recession have affected subsidized rental housing in the United Kingdom and the United States. These two nations approach the housing needs of low-income households in very different ways and to very different degrees. In the UK, non-profit housing associations are pivotal to the production and management of affordable rental housing; in the US, the affordable housing system revolves mostly around a single program, the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit. Yet the crisis destabilized key parts of both countries’ subsidy systems and raised important questions about their sustainability in the future. The UK responded sooner and arguably more effectively than the US to the crisis. However, over the longer term, the prospects for affordable housing development are likely to be more difficult in the UK than in the US.