The Social Effects of the Physical Environment

Problem: Policymakers and community development practitioners view increasing subsidized owner-occupied housing as a mechanism to improve urban neighborhoods, but little research studies the impact of such investments on community amenities.

Purpose: We examine the impact of subsidized owner-occupied housing on the quality of local schools and compare them to the impacts of city investments in rental units.

Methods: Using data from the New York City Department of Education (DOE) and the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), we estimate three main sets of regressions, exploring student characteristics, school resources, and school outcomes.

Results and conclusions: The completion of subsidized owner-occupied housing is associated with a decrease in schools’ percentage of free-lunch eligible students, an increase in schools’ percentage of White students, and, controlling for these compositional changes, an increase in scores on standardized reading and math exams. By contrast, our results suggest that investments in rental housing have little, if any, effect.

Takeaway for practice: Policies promoting the construction of subsidized owner-occupied housing have solidified in local governments around the country. Our research provides reassurance to policymakers and planners who are concerned about the spillover effects of subsidized, citywide investments beyond the households being directly served. It suggests that benefits from investments in owner occupancy may extend beyond the individual level, with an increase in subsidized owner-occupancy bringing about improvements in neighborhood school quality.

Research support: None.     

Balancing act: the effects of race and poverty on LIHTC development in Boston

Abstract

The debate about where to build affordable housing remains unresolved. Fair housing advocates encourage placement in low poverty neighborhoods while community development proponents support the opposite approach. Prior work notes the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program is disproportionately found in Black and poor areas but the results are based on 20-year old data and ignore effects within LIHTC neighborhoods. This paper uses recent data and multivariate analysis to explore the impact of neighborhood racial composition and poverty rate on LIHTC development in the Boston metropolitan region. We find race is associated with the presence of LIHTC development while poverty is associated with the amount of LIHTC housing built, which reveals important differences between project siting and size. LIHTC units are not more heavily concentrated in Black or poor neighborhoods, conditional on LIHTC development. The findings suggest how the LIHTC program can be used to balance competing fair housing and community development priorities in developing affordable housing.     

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.     

Road Congestion Pricing in Europe: Implications for the United States

As the neighborhood increasingly becomes the focus of urban policy, seriously deteriorated neighborhoods may be, with increasing frequency, discounted in resource allocation decisions as beyond hope of revitalization. In large part, this is due to the growing use of neighborhood classification schemes that generalize variations in physical, economic, and social conditions across an entire neighborhood. Through a more microanalysis of neighborhood conditions, however, the planner may find that many areas that would normally be considered beyond salvation, actually have block-specific characteristics that lend themselves to some form of nonmarket community-based reinvestment activity.

Using HUD's sweat equity multifamily home-steading demonstration in New York City as a case example, a model analysis of block-specific variations in housing and related conditions is carried out for a target neighborhood. The analysis suggests not only that there is substantial variation around the mean values of important housing and neighborhood variables, but also that there is a significant consistency in the spatial patterns of these differences. This information can become a useful input into a comprehensive block-stabilizing planning process.     

Changing Water and Sewer Finance: Distributional Impacts and Effects on the Viability of Affordable Housing

Usage-based charges finance an increasing share of water and sewer costs in the U.S. The shift has been especially sharp in New York City, where residential users traditionally did not pay usage-based charges. In this article, we examine the impact that a transition to universal metered billing would have on multifamily housing. We find that universal metering would result in large increases in water and sewer bills for many multifamily buildings in low-income neighborhoods. Comparing the predicted increases with the net operating income of landlords in low-income neighborhoods indicates that universal metering might pose a threat to the viability of much affordable housing.     

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.     

Aging Baby Boomers and the Generational Housing Bubble: Foresight and Mitigation of an Epic Transition

Problem, research strategy, and findings: Transit-oriented developments (TODs) often consist of new housing near rail stations. Channeling urban growth into such developments is intended in part to reduce the climate change, pollution, and congestion caused by driving. But new housing might be expected to attract more affluent households that drive more, and rail access might have smaller effects on auto ownership and use than housing tenure and size, parking availability, and the neighborhood and subregional built environments.

I surveyed households in northern New Jersey living within two miles of 10 rail stations about their housing age and type, access to off-street parking, work and non-work travel patterns, demographics, and reasons for choosing their neighborhoods. The survey data were geocoded and joined to on-street parking data from a field survey, along with neighborhood and subregional built environment measures. I analyzed how these factors were correlated with automobile ownership and use as reported in the survey.

Auto ownership, commuting, and grocery trip frequency were substantially lower among households living in new housing near rail stations compared to those in new households farther away. But rail access does little to explain this fact. Housing type and tenure, local and subregional density, bus service, and particularly off- and on-street parking availability, play a much more important role.

Takeaway for practice: Transportation and land use planners should broaden their efforts to develop dense, mixed-use, low-parking housing beyond rail station areas. This could be both more influential and less expensive than a development policy oriented around rail.

Research support: Data collection and initial research were funded under contract with the New Jersey Department of Transportation.     

NEIGHBORHOOD DIVERSITY,ECONOMIC HEALTH,AND THE ROLE OF THE ARTS

Policymakers pursue a range of strategies aimed at diversifying neighborhoods despite research indicating the complicated and potentially damaging results of these efforts. One increasingly common approach is to incorporate the arts into planning efforts in the hope of enhancing diversity and catalyzing positive neighborhood change. Using data from the Cultural Data Project, the authors determine where newly established New York City arts organizations locate in terms of neighborhood racial, income, and industry diversity. They then analyze how diverse contexts interact with an arts presence to impact neighborhood economic health over time. They find that neighborhoods with high levels of racial diversity and low levels of income and industry diversity benefit most from an arts presence. However, the arts are attracted predominantly to neighborhoods with moderate levels of racial diversity and high levels of income and industry diversity. This complicates the use of the arts as a tool in urban revitalization policy.     

Lessons for LEED® for Neighborhood Development,Social Equity,and Affordable Housing

Problem, research strategy, and findings: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design® for Neighborhood Development (LEED®ND) is a rating system designed to encourage sustainable development. I explore why and how most LEED®ND projects ultimately fail to meet the equity goals inherent in sustainability. I survey 114 LEED®ND accredited professionals (APs) and conduct 20 interviews with LEED®ND APs to illuminate the role of the rating system in developer decisions to include affordable housing in their projects. I also explore why nonprofit developers see value in seeking LEED®ND certification for their projects. Although a limited sample, it provides insights into how the certification process affects developer decisions. I find that the LEED®ND rating system does a poor job of encouraging developers to provide affordable housing: Only 40% of LEED®ND-certified projects include affordable housing. LEED®ND APs do not feel that the system offers sufficient incentives to overcome the risks and costs of providing affordable housing. Nonprofit developers might pursue LEED®ND to create savings for residents, but may be deterred by the cost of certification. Most respondents feel that the affordable housing credit should be increased and improved to provide adequate incentives to developers.

Takeaway for practice: Planners cannot count on LEED®ND certification to ensure the provision of affordable and mixed housing in sustainable neighborhoods. The LEED®ND system could be improved by weighting the affordable housing credit more heavily; developers could also be incentivized to build a greater mix of housing. The certification costs could be lowered or subsidized for projects with affordable housing and assessed on a per unit basis. Additional credits could be given to projects that significantly reduce utility costs for low-income residents.     

Evictions,large owners,and serial filings: findings from Atlanta

Abstract

Evictions cause substantial harm to lower-income families and neighborhoods. We find that eviction filings include many ‘serial filings’, in which landlords file repeatedly on the same tenant. We analyze serial and nonserial filing rates at the property level, and the share of a property’s filings that are serial filings. Regressions on building, location, and neighborhood characteristics reveal factors associated with higher serial and nonserial filing rates and serial share. We find that the largest owners and larger buildings tend to have high serial shares. When looking at nonserial filings, which are more likely to result in tenant displacement, neighborhood race is a strong independent predictor; properties in Black neighborhoods have substantially higher nonserial filing rates, other things equal. Another key result is that sales in the prior three years have a significant, nontrivial positive effect on the nonserial filing rate, so that property turnover is a significant predictor of rising evictions. We discuss implications for policy and further research.     

The Link Between Local Comprehensive Plans and Housing Affordability: A Comparative Study of the Atlanta and Detroit Metropolitan Areas

Problem, research strategy, and findings: I question whether the strength of affordable housing policies in local comprehensive plans is associated with better affordable housing outcomes, which I measure as a decrease in the share of low-income households who spend more than 30% of their income for housing, otherwise known as cost-burdened households. I first assess the strength of affordable housing policies in 58 local comprehensive plans, counting the number of—and degree of coercion in—those affordable housing policies. I then analyze the relationship between the strength of affordable housing policies and changes in the share of low-income households with cost burden. I find that the strength of affordable housing policies is higher in the Atlanta (GA) metropolitan area than in the Detroit (MI) metropolitan area. I also find that the strength of affordable housing policies is positively associated with a decrease in the share of low-income households paying more than 30% of their income for housing in the Atlanta metropolitan area. I do not find a comparable relationship between plan strength and housing outcomes in the Detroit metropolitan area. I also find that the state role matters: Georgia provides more support and guidance for local comprehensive planning, and for affordable housing policies in those plans, than does Michigan.

Takeaway for practice: Planners should continually promote local comprehensive plans that include more and stronger affordable housing policies and advocate for greater state support for comprehensive planning and affordable housing policies because these appear to lead to a greater likelihood of implementing stronger plans.     

Achieving Regional Housing Planning Objectives: Directing Affordable Housing to Jobs-Rich Neighborhoods in the San Francisco Bay Area

Problem, research strategy, and findings: Low-income households face affordability issues and are often forced to live in areas with limited job access and inadequate transportation. Local communities exacerbate these problems through exclusionary zoning. We study the impact of the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) change in allocation formula under California’s affordable housing mandate. The old policy followed a fair share strategy, whereas the new policy requires local jurisdictions to locate mandated affordable housing units in jobs-rich areas. We compare affordable housing produced in the region before and after ABAG adopted the jobs-housing policy; we also compare the new patterns to the location of market-rate housing and to the experiences of San Diego (CA) and Los Angeles (CA), both of which retain fair share allocation. We do not control for variables that may have affected affordable housing location. ABAG’s policy shift is associated with a 104% improvement in the balance of housing and jobs at the local level; affordable housing units are more likely than market-rate housing to locate in jobs-rich areas, which may indicate that localities prioritize affordable housing. We also find that more affordable housing locates in such areas in the San Francisco Bay Area (CA) than in San Diego or Los Angeles.

Takeaway for practice: A voluntary regional government in a state with mandatory affordable housing requirements can affect the production and distribution of affordable housing. A total of 25 U.S. states require localities to include affordable housing elements in their comprehensive plans; we suggest that regional and local planners use these opportunities to meet multiple policy goals by directing affordable housing to jobs-rich neighborhoods.     

Preservation from the bottom-up: affordable housing,redevelopment, and negotiation in Washington,DC

Previous iterations of large-scale redevelopment were been marked by displacement of the residents whose homes stood in the way of perceived progress. Now these neighborhoods face a new kind of urban renewal. A city with significant vacancy and city government ownership, Washington, DC, is in the process of rapid infill redevelopment. As property values surrounding city-backed developments that were once affordable increase, residents struggle to afford housing. DC has developed significant tools for the preservation of affordable housing, including an existing stock of subsidized housing, legal and financial resources, and a network of organizers and advocates that have given many residents in changing neighborhoods the opportunity to remain. This paper uses the example of Columbia Heights neighborhood of Washington, DC to examine potential strategies to preserve affordable housing in rapidly changing housing markets.     

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.     

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.     

Affordable Housing Plans in London and New York: Between Marketplace and Social Mix

The article reviews and critically analyzes contemporary housing policies and plans in London and New York in the context of neoliberal urban governance. In both cities, we find severe housing affordability problems, an increasing dependence on market provision of affordable housing, and a gradual shift from supporting low- and moderate-income residents to promoting housing for households around and above the median income. Affordable housing plans in both cities also link their “marketplace” orientation to “social mix” objectives. The article addresses some socio-spatial implications of these plans and raises concerns regarding the implementation and unintended consequences of mixed-income housing. The conclusion discusses ideas and tools for more equitable affordable housing policies. Finally, we suggest that our analysis of the policy trends in London and New York and the implications we draw may be relevant to other global and globalizing cities, which face similar affordability concerns and rely on the marketplace to address housing needs.     

Subtenures and Housing Outcomes for Low Income Renters in New York City

New York has devised a variety of policy approaches to improve the housing status of low‐income households, including public housing, publicly subsidized private housing, rent vouchers, welfare shelter allowances, rent regulation, and tax incentives to landlords. Little systematic attention has been paid to how these various subtenures compare when judged by the housing outcomes they produce for low‐income households in the city. Using data from the 1996 New York City Housing and Vacancy Survey, this article compares New York City’s rental subtenures in terms of the following outcomes: housing quality, crowding, affordability, residential mobility/stability, and various indicators of neighborhood quality. Adjusting for differences in household and housing stock characteristics, we find that the tenant‐based Section 8 program seems to produce the best set of overall outcomes for low‐income renters in the city.     

CONTESTING THE FINANCIALIZATION OF URBAN SPACE: COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS AND THE STRUGGLE TO PRESERVE AFFORDABLE RENTAL HOUSING IN NEW YORK CITY

As cities have become both site and object of capital accumulation in a neoliberal political economy, the challenges to community practice aimed at creating, preserving, and improving affordable housing and neighborhoods have grown. Financial markets and actors are increasingly central to the workings of capitalism, transforming the meaning and significance of mortgage capital in local communities and redrawing the relationship between housing and urban inequality. This article addresses the integration of housing and financial markets through the case of “predatory equity,” a wave of aggressive private equity investment in New York City's affordable rental sector during the mid‐2000s real estate boom. I consider the potential for community organizations to develop innovative, effective, and progressive practices to contest the impact of predatory equity on affordable housing. Highlighting how organizations employed discursive and empirical tactics as well as tactics that reworked the sites, spaces, and structures of finance, this research speaks to the political possibility of contemporary community practice.     

When Tourists Move In: How Should Urban Planners Respond to Airbnb?

Problem, research strategy, and findings: The online accommodation platform Airbnb has expanded globally, raising substantial planning and regulatory concerns. We ask whether Airbnb rentals generate significant neighborhood impacts like noise, congestion, and competition for parking; reduce the permanent rental housing supply and increase rental prices; or provide income opportunities that help “hosts” afford their own housing. We focus on Sydney, the largest region in Australia with 4.4 million people in 28 individual municipalities, which has experienced both rapidly rising housing costs and exponential growth in Airbnb listings since 2011. Airbnb’s growth has raised concerns serious enough to result in a formal Parliamentary Inquiry by the state of New South Wales. We analyze stakeholder submissions to this inquiry and review local planning regulations, Airbnb listings data, and housing market and census statistics. We find that online homesharing platforms for visitor accommodations blur traditional boundaries between residential and tourist areas so Airbnb listings may fall outside of existing land use regulations or evade detection until neighbors complain. Our findings are constrained by the difficulties of monitoring online operations and the rapid changes in the industry.

Takeaway for practice: Planners and policymakers in cities with increasing numbers of Airbnb rentals need to review how well local planning controls manage the neighborhood nuisances, traffic, and parking problems that may be associated with them while acting to protect the permanent rental housing supply. Local planners need to ensure that zoning and residential development controls distinguish between different forms of short-term Airbnb accommodation listings and their potential impacts on neighborhoods and housing markets.