Publications Affordable Housing
-
Data Brief
Rent Stabilization in New York City
The fact brief presents data and analyzes the characteristics of rent-stabilized units and their tenants in New York City. In 2011, New York City was home to 1,025,214 rent-regulated units, representing nearly half of the city’s total rental housing stock. The analysis is released in advance of the U.S. Supreme Court’s announcement on whether it will hear the case of Harmon v Kimmel, which challenges rent regulation laws in New York City and would have broad implications for the city’s rental market.
The Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy. April 2012.
-
Working Paper
American Murder Mystery Revisited: Do Housing Voucher Households Cause Crime?
In recent years, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has shifted resources from public housing to the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV or “voucher”) program. There were 2.2 million vouchers nationwide in 2008, compared to 1.2 million public housing units. Although the academic and policy communities have welcomed this shift, community opposition to vouchers can be fierce, due to perceptions that voucher-holders will both reduce property values and heighten crime. Despite the public concerns, however, there is virtually no research that systematically examines the link between the presence of voucher holders in a neighborhood and crime. Our paper uses longitudinal, neighborhood-level crime and voucher utilization data in 10 large U.S. cities over 12 years, and finds voucher-holders moving to a neighborhood does not, in fact, increase crime. We do see, on the other hand, that households with vouchers tend to move to communities when crime rates are rising.
Ingrid Gould Ellen, Michael C. Lens, Katherine O’Regan. March 2012.
-
White Papers
State of New York City’s Subsidized Housing: 2011
To reduce the financial burden that low- and moderate-income families in New York City face, city, state and federal agencies have employed numerous subsidy programs to encourage private developers to own and manage affordable housing developments. With the cooperation of government housing agencies, the Furman Center created the Subsidized Housing Information Project (SHIP)—an online searchable database containing information on the nearly 235,000 units of privately-owned, subsidized affordable rental housing in New York City developed with major subsidy programs. This report is the first comprehensive analysis of properties in our SHIP database, and identifies opportunities to preserve affordable housing in the coming years.
Jaclene Begley, Caitlyn Brazill, Vincent Reina, Max Weselcouch. September 2011.
-
Data Brief
New York Quarterly Housing Update 2011: 1st Quarter
In an analysis of first quarter housing indicators, the Furman Center finds that housing prices declined between the last quarter of 2010 and the first quarter of 2011 in every borough except Queens, where prices remained essentially flat. The volume of home sales continued to decline in every borough compared to the previous year. The Quarterly Housing Update is unique among New York City housing reports because it incorporates sales data, new construction indicators, and foreclosures. It also presents a repeat sales index for each borough to capture price appreciation while controlling for housing quality.
The Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy. May 2011.
affordable housing, housing prices, mortgage foreclosures, neighborhoods
-
Working Paper
The Low Income Housing Tax Credit and Racial Segregation
This paper addresses a critical but almost unexamined aspect of the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program—whether its use (and in particular, the siting of developments in high poverty/high minority neighborhoods), is associated with increased racial segregation. Using data from HUD and the census, supplemented with data on the racial composition of LIHTC tenants in three states, we examine three potential channels through which the LIHTC could affect segregation: where LIHTC units are built relative to where other low income households live, who lives in these tax credit developments, and changes in neighborhood racial composition in neighborhoods that receive tax credit projects. The evidence on each of these channels suggests that LIHTC projects do not contribute to increased segregation, even those in high poverty neighborhoods. On net, we find that increases in the use of tax credits are associated with declines in racial segregation at the metropolitan level.
Keren Horn, Katherine O’Regan. May 2011.
-
White Papers
Overview of Affirmative Marketing and Implications for the Westchester Fair Housing Settlement
This report summarizes a Feb. 14, 2011 Institute for Affordable Housing Policy roundtable on affirmative marketing of affordable housing in Westchester County. The Furman Center received grant funding to provide independent research and expert assistance on implementation of a federal housing settlement. Under the terms of the settlement, Westchester must develop at least 750 affordable housing units in municipalities with overwhelmingly white populations, and must affirmatively market this housing in geographic areas with significant non-white populations. The roundtable and this review explores strategies to identify and reach potential residents, with an aim of providing insight for Westchester County in the implementation of its obligations under the settlement, as well as to provide guidance to other municipalities that share the obligation to affirmatively further fair housing.
John Infranca. April 2011.
affordable housing, fair housing, housing, neighborhoods, race, segregation
-
Article
Does City-Subsidized Owner-Occupied Housing Improve School Quality? Evidence from New York City
Policymakers have long promoted homeownership as a mechanism for community change. While previous studies have shown a positive association between homeownership and education at the individual level, ours is the first to systematically report on the effect of subsidized, owner-occupied housing on local schools. This New York City-focused analysis suggests that investments in subsidized, owner-occupied housing are associated with an increase in standardized reading and math scores at local schools, whereas similar investments in rental housing are not associated with any improvement in school quality. Subsidized, owner-occupied housing has also changed the demographic characteristics of local schools in New York City, increasing the percentage of white students and decreasing the percentage eligible for free lunch.
Colin C. Chellman, Ingrid Gould Ellen, Brian J. McCabe, Amy Ellen Schwartz, Leanna Stiefel. Journal of the American Planning Association . April 2011.
-
15 Years of Research, Analysis and Insight
In celebration of our 15th year, the Furman Center assembled a report taking stock of our accomplishments and outlining a plan for the future to ensure that we remain a distinctive and trusted voice at the forefront of academic and public policy debates.
Furman Center. February 2011.
-
Book
How to House the Homeless
Homelessness is one of the most troubling and persistent social problems in the United States, yet experts can neither agree on its root causes nor on how to eradicate it. Is homelessness the result of individual life conditions, such as poverty, addiction, or mental illness, or is there simply not enough affordable housing? And which services are the most successful? In How to House the Homeless, editors Ingrid Gould Ellen and Brendan O’Flaherty propose that the answers entail rethinking how housing markets operate and developing more efficient interventions in existing service programs. The book critically reassesses where we are now, analyzes the most promising policies and programs going forward, and offers a new agenda for future research.
Ingrid Gould Ellen, Brendan O'Flaherty. July 2010.
-
White Papers
Building Environmentally Sustainable Communities: A Framework for Inclusivity
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has decided to include two key goals in all of its programs: encouraging sustainable communities and enhancing access to opportunity for lower-income people and people of color. This paper examines the relationship between these two goals through a literature review and an original empirical analysis of how these goals interact at the neighborhood and metropolitan area levels. We also offer policy recommendations for HUD.
Vicki Been, Mary Cunningham, Ingrid Gould Ellen, Adam Gordon, Joe Parilla, Margery Austin Turner, Sheryl Verlaine Whitney Aaron Yowell, and Ken Zimmerman. May 2010.
- Page 1 of 5 pages 1 2 3 > Last »

