Passing the Housing Policy Baton in the US: Will Cities Take the Lead?

Federal leadership and funding for affordable housing policy declined in the 1980s. In the 1990s, the commitment to low-income housing continues to wane and is accompanied by funding uncertainties as the federal government redefines its role as policy-maker. The federal withdrawal leaves a void in housing policy-making as yet unfilled by lower levels of government. Given the direct impact of housing availability and conditions on local communities, cities may be the most likely candidates to assume the primary role in affordable housing policy. Some policy analysts, however, argue that cities will not assume the lead role or spend local dollars on redistributive policy such as affordable housing programmes. This paper examines affordable housing policy in the inter-governmental context, the influence of inter-governmental factors on local housing commitment, and the potential for cities to fill the gap left by the federal government. The analysis uses US Census data combined with data from a mail survey of city housing professionals in a representative sample of US cities with populations of 25 000 or greater. The findings from the analysis show that many cities do spend local dollars on housing programmes, but that the decision to do so is influenced by inter-governmentalfactors. Moreover, the results suggest that states, not cities, are likely to assume the leadership role for affordable housing policy in the future.     

The effect of market conditions on the housing outcomes of subsidized households: the case of the US voucher programme

Abstract

Since being created in the 1970s, housing vouchers have become the primary mode of federal housing support for low-income households in the US. The voucher programme was designed to provide recipients with the mobility needed to secure higher quality housing in neighbourhoods of their choice. Decades of analysis suggest that the programme has failed to produce the favourable outcomes envisioned by policymakers. To add to our understanding of the outcomes of this important federal programme, this paper seeks to underscore the importance of context-dependent policy analysis. In particular, this study analyses the impact of housing market conditions on the outcomes achieved by voucher recipients. Using neighbourhood and housing outcome data from the American Housing Survey, and median rent and rental market vacancy data, this paper demonstrates the important role that market conditions play in programme outcomes. The results from this study suggest that voucher recipients are successful at improving housing unit quality outcomes regardless of market conditions, but the ability to move to a better neighbourhood is a function of vacancy rates.     

‘The older adult’ doesn’t exist: using values to differentiate older adults in the Dutch housing market

Abstract

To date most prognoses of older adults in the housing market have been based on average housing preferences and average housing market behaviour of all persons in a certain age cohort. Due to socialcultural and social-economic dynamics, the relationship between age and housing is expected to change for successive cohorts. This study sets out to improve housing preferences estimates by recognizing the growing differentiation among older adults. This heterogeneity is analysed by differentiating older adults on their lifestyles (operationalized as values), using latent class analysis as a clustering technique. These analyses result in older adults being classified into five segments on the basis of their viewpoints, motivations and attitude. Next, for each lifestyle segment a separate discrete choice model is estimated, offering insight in the relative importance that these segments give to various housing attributes. The findings demonstrate advantages over a traditional, single model approach and can be helpful in formulating contemporary housing policy.     

Post-war urban renewal and demolition fluctuations in Sweden

In the decades following the Second World War, Swedish cities experienced extensive urban renewal projects that continue to shape the country’s contemporary built environment. Many Swedish cities saw large-scale demolitions starting in the 1950s. The demolitions increased during the 1960s and 1970s, when the government implemented the so-called Million Programme (1965–1974). The declared target of the housing policy was to raise housing standards, create healthy living conditions and lessen the housing shortage through the construction of modern housing. In the 1980s, the preservation and modernization of dwellings replaced the clearance policy. The 1990s brought a new demolition wave, which subsided in the 2000s. This paper reviews the renewal processes and various phases of demolition activity in Swedish post-war cities from the perspective of housing policy and planning. The research analysis is based on the literature and statistics.     

Trouble in paraside? On increasing housing problems in flanders

The survey data for this article was collected by the Center for Social Policy (Antwerp University). At regular intervals, they question a representative number of Belgian families in order to make the operation and effects of social policy measurable. On the basis of that data, this article traces the evolution of housing indicators in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium. After outlining the key issues in housing policy in Belgium and Flanders, the article presents the facts: for several population groups, it sketches the developments of tenure, housing amenities, housing costs, and affordability. The emerging picture is one of overall improvement. Nevertheless, some groups lag behind, while new social groups in need of housing emerge (e.g., lone parents). Age and the number of incomes per family seem to be the breaking points. The second part deals specifically with the housing situation of young families (head under 40 years of age). This population group is (historically) responsible for most new building of houses in Belgium and Flanders. Since we observe a decline in ownership, the reasons for this decline are of strategic importance to our understanding of the level of new housing construction and scarcity on the housing market. At the time of the research,Pascal De Decker (sociologist and urban planner) held an appointment at the Center for Housing and Housing Policy (Steunpunt voor Wonen en Woonbeleid) at Antwerp University (UFSIA). At present, he is an expert consultant to the Cabinet of the Flemish Minister for Urban Policy and Housing. Bert Meulemans (sociologist) supervised the reported research on target groups. He is a researcher at the Center for Social Policy (Centrum voor Sociaal Beleid) at Antwerp University (UFSIA) Veerle Geurts (criminologist) is a researcher at the Center for Housing and Housing Policy (Steunpunt voor Wonen en Woonbeleid) at Antwerp University (UFSIA)     

Changing Residential Land Use Regulations to Address High Housing Prices

Problem, research strategy, and findings: In the past 3 decades, a series of presidential administrations—and the APA—have recommended that cities update their zoning codes to enable more affordable and market-rate housing development. I identify 5 main categories of policy recommendations they have suggested and then assess Los Angeles’s (CA) zoning changes in these categories between 2000 and 2016. I answer 2 questions: First, what zoning changes did Los Angeles adopt to address housing affordability? Second, how were these changes initiated, and what were their scope and geographic extent? I find that Los Angeles made modest progress in the 5 policy categories. The city left its large-lot, single-family zoning mostly untouched, but it rezoned roughly 1,200 acres citywide to allow at least 50 housing units per acre, reduced parking requirements in some areas, made it easier to build accessory dwelling units, and adopted new incentives for affordable housing. Several policy changes resulted from new state laws, and Los Angeles voters approved new incentives for affordable housing near transit. Homeowner influence likely prevented the municipality from engaging in larger zoning reforms. I do not study the effects of Los Angeles’s regulatory changes on housing production and prices, but such research is an important next step. I also do not assess new regulations that counteracted the impact of the 5 categories of policy recommendations.

Takeaway for practice: This research suggests 2 lessons: 1) Planners should encourage state governments to preempt local zoning when it reduces affordable housing options and there is limited local political will for change, and 2) planners should identify feasible and effective zoning changes that would increase affordable housing given local considerations.     

城市住房价格跨区域联动的检验与模式研究

以35个大中城市住房价格为研究对象,在构建空间计量模型检验跨区域联动的基础上,借助GVAR模型与网络分析方法,从总体、个体两个层面,考察跨区域联动的具体模式。结果显示:城市住房价格呈现显著的正向跨区域联动;总体层面上,跨区域联动相互交错呈网络结构;个体层面上,单个城市住房价格变动对全国、区域层面住房价格的影响呈现非均质性和空间异质性特征。因此,应深化对住房价格形成机制的认识,以更准确地促进政策目标的实现。     

Social Disadvantage,Tenure and Location: An Analysis of Sydney and Melbourne

This article focuses on the role that housing markets play in structuring patterns of social disadvantage in Australian cities, specifically Sydney and Melbourne. It explores the relationship between housing tenure and social disadvantage at the local scale (Census collector districts) for the two cities, following a discussion of the various stands of literature on housing tenure and socio-spatial polarisation in Australian cities. It analyses the relationship between areas of high social disadvantage and housing tenure. The analysis, which uses the ABS Index of Disadvantage, distinguishes locations where comparable levels of social disadvantage are associated with very different housing markets, one where public housing is prominent and others which are primarily areas of private sector housing. The social profiles of both types of area are described, drawing out differences between the two cities, as are changes in the extent of these areas over time. The policy implications for the areas of private sector housing are then discussed.     

Social Disadvantage, Tenure and Location: An Analysis of Sydney and Melbourne

This article focuses on the role that housing markets play in structuring patterns of social disadvantage in Australian cities, specifically Sydney and Melbourne. It explores the relationship between housing tenure and social disadvantage at the local scale (Census collector districts) for the two cities, following a discussion of the various stands of literature on housing tenure and socio-spatial polarisation in Australian cities. It analyses the relationship between areas of high social disadvantage and housing tenure. The analysis, which uses the ABS Index of Disadvantage, distinguishes locations where comparable levels of social disadvantage are associated with very different housing markets, one where public housing is prominent and others which are primarily areas of private sector housing. The social profiles of both types of area are described, drawing out differences between the two cities, as are changes in the extent of these areas over time. The policy implications for the areas of private sector housing are then discussed.     

Approaches to workforce housing in London and Chicago: from targeted sectors to income-based eligibility

In many cities, people with jobs essential to daily urban life—bus drivers, teachers, police, nurses and the like—cannot afford housing in proximity to their work. Municipal efforts to counter such job–housing imbalances include targeting such workers specifically or moderate-income households, more broadly, for housing support. This article investigates and assesses housing policy for modest-income workers in two cities, Chicago and London. Based on review of documents and key informant interviews, each city’s policy context, aims, means and outcomes are analyzed. Effective strategies include working with public, private and third-sector partners to find upstream cost-effective solutions, increasing shared equity/ownership products and developing mechanisms to ensure long-term affordability of workforce housing. While each city’s policies reflect local conditions, they also are indicative of broad trends in intermediate housing policy: an increase in stakeholders involved in programme administration and delivery, a continued focus on homeownership, rising income thresholds for eligibility and a shift away from targeting employment sectors.     

MTO: A residential relocation demonstration program in the United States

This article provides an overview of an experimental residential relocation program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development known as Moving to Opportunity (MTO), currently in operation in five U.S. cities: Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York. Because families are randomly assigned to three groups, each of which receives a different bundle of housing services, MTO provides a unique opportunity to learn more about the effects of concentrated urban poverty on the outcomes of families. Yet residential relocation can be an effective anti-poverty strategy only if families successfully relocate and if their new neighborhoods translate into improved labor-market, educational, or other outcomes. We illustrate the potential as well as the limits of residential relocation policies by focusing on the relationship between the housing market and educational opportunities in the Baltimore demonstration site. Helen F. Ladd is Professor of Public Policy Studies and Economics at Duke University. Much of her current research focuses on education policy, particularly performance-based approaches to reforming schools. She is the editor ofHolding Schools Accountable: Performance-Based Reform in Education (Brookings Institution, May, 1996). She currently co-chairs a National Academy of Sciences Committee on Education Finance: Equity, Adequacy, and Productivity. Jens Ludwig is Assistant Professor of Public Policy at Georgetown University.     

Marriage-induced homeownership as a driver of housing booms: evidence from Hong Kong

Abstract

Buying a home for marriage is customary in many societies. Traditionally, therefore, young couples getting married is a key driver of demand for homeownership. Yet the idea of marriage-induced demand for homeownership is a relatively underexplored component of housing price change. We examine the role of marriage-induced demand for homeownership in Hong Kong, a relatively self-contained housing market with fewer options for migration than most large cities. We use an instrumental variable strategy to test the hypothesis that more unmarried individuals at the prime age for marriage increases housing prices. We find that an additional one thousand marriage-aged but unmarried individuals leads to a seven per cent increase in housing prices. These findings confirm the importance of demographic factors such as cohort size and marriage rates on housing price projections, housing needs assessments, and housing policy.     

Value for money: Quality and price of land for social housing in the Netherlands

The Dutch take pride in their policy on housing and the development of urban land. After the Second World War, the Housing Act—dating from 1901—was elaborated into specific rules for physical planning and a system of subsidizing the production and management of a large number of social rented dwellings. The effectiveness of the Dutch approach was based upon the synergy of state interventions in physical planning, housing and land policy. This article analyses the performance of this system in two respects. Firstly, it looks at how the system affected the influence of prices of virgin land and of land development costs on decisions in physical planning, and what effect it had on prices of serviced land for social housing. This section is based on an analysis of Dutch land policy and the resulting land prices for housing over the entire post-war period. Secondly, this article considers what the Dutch system contributed to social integration in Dutch cities, and whether it gave lower—income groups access to locations with better quality than the free market would have offered. This second part of the study is based on empirical data on the socio-spatial development of The Hague and its region. Regarding the existing English literature on the successes of Dutch policy, the author suggests a more carefully balanced appraisal. This leads to some points for a research agenda for land policy in the Netherlands, given the rapid shift to marketled production in Dutch housing.     

中国城市住房价格变化的影响因素分析——基于31个城市面板数据的实证研究

研究城市房价波动的影响因素及其程度,有助于提高政府宏观经济调控政策的针对性和有效性。首先构建住宅市场供需影响因素的均衡分析理论模型,然后通过固定效应模型,对我国31个主要城市1998~2008年的面板数据进行计量检验和实证研究。研究发现：利率和上期房价对房价的影响最为显著;收入水平对房价也存在一定影响,而空置率对房价上涨的影响较弱;人口、就业水平、地价和建设成本不能用来解释房价变化。     

Telling stories: the role of narratives in rental housing policy change in New Zealand

Abstract

This paper examines the emergence of the regulation of housing conditions in the private rental sector as a policy issue in New Zealand using an analysis of narratives in media, advocacy and political texts. Narratives are evident in public discourse and are the stories told by interest groups to identify and cast a problem as a policy issue in a way analogous to the beliefs of the speaker. This case study shows that while the narratives used by advocates for policy change were effective in raising the issue, they were ineffective in overcoming a counter-narrative of excessive regulation by the government and concerns of possible rent rises. This opposition to regulation of the private sector by a right-leaning government needs to be more effectively countered by more powerful intersecting narratives, if evidence on the relationship between housing, health and safety is to become the basis for effectively implemented government policy.     

Settlement and housing experiences of recent immigrants in small- and mid-sized cities in the interior of British Columbia (Canada)

Relatively little is known about immigrants’ settlement experiences in small- and mid-sized Canadian cities, including their access to local services and their housing experiences and outcomes—both of which are key factors in successful integration. This study considered immigrants’ settlement experiences, including their access to local services and their housing experiences and outcomes, in the cities of Kelowna and Kamloops, with a focus on the housing rental market, and reliance on community services. The results of the study include recommendations for improving immigrants’ settlement and integration in urban areas in the interior of British Columbia. Survey data were gathered between April and August 2015 from 80 recent immigrant renters in the cities of Kelowna (40) and in Kamloops (40). Findings suggest that immigrants find their housing more difficult than anticipated, largely due to unexpectedly high costs and unfamiliarity with the Canadian housing system. Few immigrants in either city relied on local community organizations or government-sponsored ones to find a place to live and/or a job upon arrival in Kelowna or Kamloops, although those who did found them very helpful. Immigrants relied mostly on their family and friends for initial assistance, but would have preferred to have received more information prior to or on their arrival. They recommended that settlement and housing services offer more direct assistance to new immigrants. For policies to succeed in attracting and retaining immigrants to these cities in British Columbia’s interior depends on the presence of (a) more subsidized/affordable housing; (b) job opportunities that match immigrants’ qualifications and that offer an adequate income; and (c) quality services and programs to integrate new immigrants into the community.     

Innovative housing practices involving immigrants: the case of self-building in Italy

This article presents self-building projects and policy in Italy and discusses their potential to respond to housing needs in contemporary cities. It first analyzes a specific regional policy designed to promote access to housing for social groups excluded from the housing market and at the same time to foster integration between Italian and immigrant families. Secondly, it looks at the development and implementation of two self-building projects, one within the framework of the regional policy and one outside it. Our aim is to provide an assessment of the related policy and the practices in terms of institutional and social innovation.     

Housing and Social Fragmentation in the Netherlands

The role of housing policy has been largely ignored in the debate on social fragmentation in Western societies. Only in Great Britain has this aspect attained prominence on the research agenda. Investigations there have shown that the mode of housing provision mitigates the effects of social fragmentation. Research elsewhere might help to clarify how and why the housing market amplifies or diminishes these effects. The case of the Netherlands is particularly illuminating because of the drastic housing policy reforms made there in recent years, allowing for a before-and-after assessment. This paper traces the effects of policy - and its reforms - on the range of housing conditions. In addition to dealing with the country as a whole, it investigates the changes in cities because of the specific nature of the urban housing stock. The analysis of how the housing conditions of various population categories changed during the period leading up to and following the announcement of the housing reforms of 1989 constitutes the core of the paper. The results show that housing conditions were already changing in the direction of the new policy aims during the 1980s. This casts doubt on the autonomous contribution of housing policy to changing housing conditions. The paper ends with a discussion of the implications of these results.     

Why are housing cooperatives successful? Insights from Swiss affordable housing policy

Housing policy is primarily regulated at the municipal level, especially in view of the international trend towards the withdrawal of the national state in this sector. This article examines recent developments in Swiss housing policy in five large cities, and the counter-reactions that are emerging due to an acute housing shortage. Relying on critical literature on housing, we present the main instruments of the Swiss housing policy and empirically analyse the political debates about their implementation. Results show that housing cooperatives are the housing support mechanism that the whole political spectrum can agree on. As the vast majority of cooperatives are non-profit, we observe the puzzling situation where neoliberal processes of state withdrawal in social policies lead to the promotion of a form of housing that is mostly common property-based and decommodified. The reasons behind their success are complex, but basing policies on private initiative rather than public property and targeting the middle class contributes to their popularity.     

Factors that Influence the Outcomes of Single Homeless People's Rehousing

This paper examines the influences of biographical, behavioural, housing and neighbourhood attributes on housing satisfaction, settledness and tenancy sustainment for 400 single homeless people who were resettled into independent accommodation. It draws on evidence from FOR-HOME, a longitudinal study in London and three provincial English cities of resettlement outcomes over 18 months. There was a high rate of tenancy sustainment: after 15/18 months, 78 per cent of the participants were in their original tenancy, 7 per cent had moved to another tenancy and only 15 per cent no longer had a tenancy. Tenure greatly influenced tenancy sustainment, with moves into private-rented accommodation having the lowest rate of success. Several housing and neighbourhood characteristics had strong associations with the outcomes. The biographical and behavioural attributes that were influential in determining outcomes were being young, frequent family contacts, having been in care as a child and some features of the recent episode of homelessness.