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Research & Policy
Do Housing Vouchers Improve Academic Performance? Evidence from New York City
While many of the benefits associated with the Housing Choice Voucher Program may help children succeed in school, there is little evidence to date showing impacts on children’s educational outcomes. A new study by NYU Furman Center Faculty Director Ingrid Gould Ellen, Amy Ellen Schwartz, Keren Mertens Horn, and Sarah A. Cordes fills this gap. Titled “Do Housing Vouchers Improve Academic Performance? Evidence from New York City” and published in the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, the paper analyzes whether, and to what extent, vouchers improve educational outcomes for children.
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Snapshot of Homeownership in New York City
The recent release of 2018 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data provides an opportunity to assess the most current public information on homeownership trends, purchase originations, and refinance originations in New York City. We share insights about homeownership patterns in New York City, drawing on the recently released HMDA data together with 2018 American Community Survey and up-to-date foreclosure data.
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News & Events
Income Volatility, Housing Instability, and Housing Assistance
On Tuesday, November 19, the NYU Furman Center hosted a policy breakfast at NYU School of Law’s D’Agostino Hall. At the breakfast, Income Volatility, Housing Instability, and Housing Assistance, panelists discussed the housing challenges associated with income and expense volatility and explored the ways in which current housing policies fail to help families facing those challenges. The panelists also described promising programs that mitigate the housing instability caused by income volatility.
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Research & Policy
Getting Low-Income Families to High-Opportunity Neighborhoods: Results from Small Area FMR
In The Effects of Small Area Fair Market Rents on the Neighborhood Choices of Families with Children , NYU Furman Center Faculty Director Ingrid Gould Ellen together with Samuel Dastrup and Meryl Finkel of Abt Associates Inc. evaluate how subsidy caps that vary according to ZIP Code alter the pool of affordable units, and whether they influence where families with vouchers live.
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Research & Policy
Reforming Housing Assistance
NYU Furman Center Faculty Director Ingrid Gould Ellen, along with co-authors Robert Collinson and Jens Ludwig, recently published Reforming Housing Assistance in the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. In the article, the authors review current federal housing assistance policies and the research evidence supporting each policy. They subsequently identify and propose strategies to address three key challenges these programs face in meeting their stated objectives.
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News & Events
Sophia House Testifies Before Jersey City Council
On Wednesday, November 13, 2019, Furman Center Legal Fellow Sophia House testified before the Jersey City Council’s Rent Control Reform Committee as it evaluates Jersey City’s rent regulations. House’s testimony covered Furman Center research cataloging the diversity of rent regulation ordinances, identifying the decisions and tradeoffs involved in the designing and implementing these regulations.
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Research & Policy
Understanding Trends in New York City’s Evictions Data
The NYU Furman Center’s new data brief, “Trends in Housing Court Eviction Filings,” shows that citywide, the total number of eviction filings is decreasing. In 2017, private landlords initiated 176,590 eviction filings, down 4.6 percent from 2016 and 7.8 percent from 2010. Overall, the trends from this study indicate an increase in rental stability from 2010 to 2017, though this stability is not felt evenly throughout the five boroughs.
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News & Events
Policy Breakfast on Recent Tenant Protection Laws in New York City
On October 15th, the NYU Furman Center held a policy breakfast titled Shifting Landscape: Tenant Protection Laws and Initiatives in New York City. The breakfast included a diverse panel of experts who shared their perspectives on the impacts of recent tenant protection laws intended to curb harassment and improve residential stability. Panelists discussed the impacts on tenants, landlords, and city agencies and debated the need for more or less regulation.
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News & Events
Understanding HUD’s Proposed Changes to the Disparate Impact Standard
Courts have long recognized that “disparate impacts” constitute a violation of protected rights under the Fair Housing Act. Together with the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at U.C. Berkeley, the NYU Furman Center submitted public comments last week arguing against a new rule proposed by HUD on three main grounds.
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Research & Policy
Updating CRA Geography: It’s Not Just About Assessment Areas
NYU Furman Center Senior Policy Fellow Mark A. Willis offers his suggestions on how to effectively modernize one crucial regulation authorized under the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). Published by the Penn Institute for Urban Research, the paper proposes a method to evaluate the CRA performance of large retail banks that use the internet to serve customers located beyond their branch network.
