Publications Tagged ‘housing policy’
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Chapter
The Evolving Crisis in Context: Recent Developments for Tenants in the Foreclosure Crisis
Although the plight of renters in the foreclosure crisis has entered the consciousness of national policymakers, renters have more often than not been omitted from the narratives offered to describe the ongoing crisis. Despite the lack of attention they have received, many thousands of rent-paying tenants have also been affected by the foreclosure crisis. Fortunately, tenants have received specific protections from mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as well as new rights under new federal laws. But while these new protections and rights should help, tenants still face significant uncertainty as the foreclosure crisis continues to unfold and outreach and communication of these rights will be essential. This chapter, assesses the extent and scale of the challenges facing renters in the foreclosure crisis, as well federal action and GSE policy changes designed to address their rights. It is an excerpt from a report by The National Center for Suburban Studies at Hofstra University, “Forging a New Housing Policy: Opportunity in the Wake of Crisis.”
Josiah Madar, Allegra Glashausser. Forging a New Housing Policy: Opportunity in the Wake of Crisis (The National Center for Suburban Studies at Hofstra University) . February 2011.
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Working Paper
Creating a Metric of Educational Opportunities for Assisted Households
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s strategic plan identifies the use of “housing as a platform for improving quality of life” as one of its five strategic goals. It further establishes a sub-goal to improve educational outcomes and early learning and development for children in HUD-assisted housing. This paper is intended to advise HUD about how to use readily available data to create a metric for school quality. This metric is the measure of success in providing “access to schools scores at or above the local average” for children in assisted households. The researchers recommend a ratio that compares the test scores of the elementary schools nearest subsidized households to the test scores of other schools in that same county or metropolitan area, with perhaps a comparison to the schools nearest other renters or low-income households. Using this local-comparison ratio can overcome differences in state methodologies for evaluating schools, differences in homeownership rates across metropolitan areas, and differences in income levels. This score will allow HUD to identify metropolitan areas to target for mobility efforts and to track progress over time.
Ingrid Gould Ellen, Keren Mertens Horn. February 2011.
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Article
Minimum parking requirements and housing affordability in New York City
Many cities throughout the United States require developers of new residential construction to provide a minimum number of accompanying off-street parking spaces. However, critics argue that these requirements increase housing costs by bundling an oversupply of parking with new housing and by reducing the number of units developers could otherwise fit on a given lot. In this article, we explore the theoretical objections to minimum parking requirements and the limited empirical literature. We then use lot-level data and GIS to analyze parking requirements in New York City to determine to what extent they are already effectively sensitive to transit proximity. Finally, we examine developer response to parking requirements by comparing the number of spaces that are actually built to the number required by applicable zoning law. Our results indicate that the per-unit parking requirement in New York is, on average, lower in areas near rail transit stations, but the required number of spaces per square foot of lot area is higher, on average, in transit accessible areas. We also find that by and large, developers tend to build only the bare minimum of parking required by zoning, suggesting that the minimum parking requirements are binding for developers, as argued by critics, and that developers do not simply build parking out of perceived marked need. Our results raise the possibility that even in cities with complex and tailored parking requirements, there is room to tie the requirements more closely to contextual factors. Further, such changes are likely to result in fewer parking spaces from residential developers.
Simon McDonnell, Josiah Madar, Vicki Been. Housing Policy Debate . January 2011.
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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.
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Working Paper
Housing Policy in New York City: A Brief History
This policy brief aims to tell the story of housing policy in New York City over the past 30 years or so. The first section describes the city’s unprecedented efforts to rebuild its housing stock during the late 1980s and 1990s. The second section analyzes the specific features of the city’s Ten Year Plan that made these efforts so successful. The third section then discusses the city’s current housing environment and the policy challenges it presents.
Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy. April 2006.
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Article
Housing Production Subsidies and Neighborhood Revitalization: New York City’s Ten Year Capital
A perennial question in housing policy concerns the form that housing assistance should take. Although some argue that housing assistance should be thought of as a form of income support and advocate direct cash grants to needy households, others favor earmarked assistance—but they differ over whether subsidies should be given to the recipients as vouchers or to developers as production subsidies.
Ingrid Gould Ellen, Amy Ellen Schwartz, Michael Schill, and Ioan Voicu. Economic Policy Review (Federal Reserve Bank of New York) . June 2003.
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Chapter
How New York Housing Policies Are Different—and Maybe Why
Ellen, Ingrid Gould and Brendan O’Flaherty. Forthcoming: The Welfare State in New York City (Russell Sage Foundation) . December 2001.
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Chapter
The Housing Court’s Role in Maintaining Affordable Housing
Galowitz, Paula. Housing and Community Development in New York City: Facing the Future, pp. 177-201 (State University of New York Press) . December 1998.
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Article
Reinventing the Central City as a Place to Live and Work
Public policies for urban development have traditionally emphasized investment in physical infrastructure, the development of large-scale commercial facilities, the construction of new housing, and the renewal of existing neighborhoods. Most efforts to revitalize central cities by building new facilities for visitors have focused on suburban commuters and tourists. At the same time, many housing initiatives in central cities have concentrated on low-income communities because outlying suburban areas have attracted traditional middle-income households.
Moss, Mitchell L. Housing Policy Debate, 8(2) . March 1997.
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Article
The Outlook for the Metropolitan Area
Much of the discourse about regional and local economic development strategies in the United States over the past twenty-five years has looked like a search for general rules. Very few such rules have emerged, in part because—like all policy debates—there have been large inputs of ideology and self-interest, as well as professional inquiry, but in part because the appropriate strategies really are time- and place-specific.
Netzer, Dick. Economic Policy Review of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, 3(1), pp. 93-111 . February 1997.
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