Publications
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A Renter Safety Net: A Call for Federal Emergency Rental Assistance
For decades, escalating housing costs have outpaced income growth for middle- and lower-income earners. As a result, millions of American households struggle to accumulate a savings buffer with the little income they have leftover after paying rent, and are therefore left vulnerable to evictions or forced moves when unexpected financial shocks occur. In this chapter, authors Ingrid Gould Ellen, Paulette Goddard Professor of Urban Policy and Planning at the NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and Faculty Director of the NYU Furman Center, Amy Ganz, Deputy Director of the Economic Strategy Group, and Katherine O’Regan, Professor of Public Policy and Planning at NYU Wagner and Faculty Director of the NYU Furman Center, document the costly externalities that such housing instability poses and propose the creation of a Federal Emergency Rental Assistance Program to provide one-time, short-term financial help to low-income renters who face unexpected financial shocks.
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How to Save Millions of Americans from Losing Their Homes
In this Opinion piece, Ingrid Gould Ellen, Amy Ganz, and Katherine O’Regan reflect on the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and the government’s response. The authors highlight the pre-existing housing problems that many Americans faced even before the pandemic, and discuss why proactive policies and existing programs become even more essential during crises. They point out how these policies and a lack of support for low-income individuals can cause tremendous strains on both renters, and on society as a whole. Ultimately, this piece is a reminder of the need for greater government housing support and a call to increase housing stability.
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Ending Exclusionary Zoning in New York City’s Suburbs
New York stands alone among its peer states—coastal states with high housing costs and healthy regional economies—in giving its local governments such broad authority over local land use. The result is a state with fewer homes, more expensive rents, and starker segregation than it would otherwise have. By some measures, New York has the most exclusionary zoning in the country. This paper therefore offers a guide for New York State to follow, and improve upon, its peer states and reform its broken suburban land use process.
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Localized Commercial Effects from Natural Disasters: The Case of Hurricane Sandy and New York City
This paper considers the localized economic impacts of an extreme event, Hurricane Sandy, on a dense and diverse economy, New York City. It isolates establishments that are more dependent on local customers--retail establishments--to test whether or not they are more vulnerable to hurricane-induced flooding than other entities with geographically dispersed consumer bases. The paper exploits variation in micro-scale exposure to pre-storm risk and post-storm inundation to identify the impact of storm-induced flooding on establishment survival, employment and sales revenues. Results indicate that the neighborhood economic losses from Sandy were significant, persistent, and concentrated among retail businesses that tend to serve a more localized consumer base.
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Breaking Barriers, Boosting Supply
The Urban Institute’s "Opportunity for All" project aims to promote federal strategies that support strong and inclusive neighborhoods. In one of the project’s briefs, “Breaking Barriers, Boosting Supply,” Furman Center Faculty Director Ingrid Gould Ellen and the Urban Institute’s Solomon Greene advocate for the federal government to tie state funding opportunities to local affordable housing goals. They highlight the potential for national policy reform to incentivize communities to take action in improving land use and zoning regulations, ultimately allowing for more affordable housing and healthier, more diverse neighborhoods.
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Gentrification and the Health of Legacy Residents
This health policy brief reviews research about gentrification and its effects on the health of long-term, or legacy, residents, with a focus on renters, exploring gentrification's effects on residential mobility, neighborhood environments, and the health and well-being of both neighborhood stayers and movers. Given the
robust evidence that neighborhoods and residential mobility affect health, there is good reason to believe that gentrification would shape the health of residents. -
Allocation of the Limited Subsidies for Public Housing
This brief analyzes the effects of public housing preference categories in the allocation of federal housing assistance. By simulating waiting list scenarios at housing authorities in three different cities, researchers demonstrate the limits of preference categories to change the allocation of units between different types of households (i.e. families, non-disabled elderly, and disabled). Income-based preferences are far more effective in changing the concentration of poverty within developments and, in certain conditions, exposure to poverty at the neighborhood level.
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Housing Justice in the Pandemic Age: Recommendations for Safe and Effective Courts During COVID-19
This brief outlines recommendations to inform the “reopening” of New York City housing courts, a term we will use to describe the incremental process of reopening court buildings, permitting new eviction filings, expanding the courts’ dockets, and other aspects of returning to full operations.
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How Can Historic Preservation Be More Inclusive? Learning From New York City’s Historic Districts
Historic preservation policies uphold the cultural heritage of a city while also impacting the social and economic landscape of the neighborhoods preserved. This chapter describes findings from analyses that compare New York City neighborhoods which received historic designations with comparable ones that did not. To broaden the agenda of the preservation community, the authors describe effects seen in work done by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission ever since it was created in 1965. They advocate for a closer look at the impact historic preservation has on equity, diversity, and inclusion.
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Renovating Subsidized Housing: The Impact On Tenants’ Health
Many public and subsidized housing developments in the US are aging and in need of significant repairs. Some observers worry that their poor condition threatens the health of residents. This study evaluated a recent renovation of public housing that was undertaken through the transfer of six housing developments from the New York City Housing Authority to a public-private partnership. It examined whether the renovation and transfer to private managers led to improvements in tenants’ health over three years, as measured by Medicaid claims. While it did not find significant improvements in individual health outcomes, it found significant relative improvements in overall disease burden when measured using an index of housing-sensitive conditions.
