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Research & Policy
Policy Minute: Housing Stability and COVID-19 Recovery
At every level of government policymakers are in the process of adapting to the new reality of operating during a global pandemic. This Policy Minute provides key data, information and Furman Center resources to help inform questions around housing stability as cities slowly begin to recover.
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Research & Policy
REPORT: Eviction Filings Continued Dramatic Decline Through 2019
A new report from the NYU Furman Center shows that eviction filings in New York City continued their dramatic decline over the last two years and are down nearly 30 percent from 2013.
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Research & Policy
How Can Historic Preservation Be More Inclusive?
Historic designation may also make it more difficult to build affordable housing, or additional housing units in general. NYU Furman Center Faculty Director Ingrid Gould Ellen, along with Brian J. McCabe and Gerard Torrats-Espinosa ask these questions to understand what it would mean for historic designation to support diverse communities rather than reinforcing socioeconomic and racial segregation.
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Research & Policy
NYU Furman Center Comments on HUD’s January 2020 AFFH Proposed Rule
Under the Fair Housing Act and subsequent federal legislation, local jurisdictions that receive federal funding have a duty not just to prohibit discrimination in housing, but also to affirmatively further fair housing. For decades, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) failed to ensure that the recipients of HUD assistance fulfilled their obligation to “affirmatively further fair housing”—to identify and proactively address barriers that would preclude people from accessing housing based on a series of protected characteristics outlined in the 1968 Fair Housing Act as amended: race, color, religion, national origin, sex, disability, and family status. After a promising regulation addressing these longstanding shortcomings was finalized in 2015, HUD proposed a new rule in January 2020 once again overhauling the AFFH regulatory framework, despite the early promise of the 2015 changes. The NYU Furman Center, with MIT Professor Justin Steil, submitted formal comments in response.
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Data Updates
What are the Housing Costs of Households Most Vulnerable to Job Layoffs? An Initial Analysis
As the COVID-19 public health crisis grows in New York City and across the United States, there is significant concern about the economic effect the crisis will have on workers in occupations susceptible to mass layoffs. Workers in a number of sectors face significant income loss due to closures, reduced hours, and cancellations. While a $2.2 trillion stimulus bill that expands unemployment benefits was signed into law last Friday, not all affected workers will have access to the expanded aid. In an effort to understand the scale of the issue and disparities when examining potential impacts by race, we reviewed pre-crisis incomes and housing costs of New York City residents who work in occupations that are more vulnerable to income loss (“vulnerable occupations”).
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Data Updates
New York’s Housing Insecurity By The Numbers
U.S. Congress, New York State, and New York City policymakers are in the process of developing a financial package with programs that will provide emergency housing assistance to address the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on housing stability and the housing market. To help inform these efforts we’ve outlined the following key information about New York City and New York State households and provides context for New York’s unique housing market.
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Research & Policy
Public Housing Repairs and Resident Health
A new study published in Health Affairs, conducted by Furman Center Faculty Director Ingrid Gould Ellen, researcher Kacie L. Dragan, and NYU Wagner Dean Sherry A. Glied explores whether transferring ownership to private developers, and subsequent housing renovations led to improvements in residents’ health over a three-year period. The authors conclude, “While the ownership transfer and broad-based renovation do not appear to have appreciably influenced any individual health outcome in the three years after renovation, they may have modestly moved the needle on aggregate health.”
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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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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.
