Browsing by Subject "Housing policy"
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Item Challenges facing non-profits in affordable housing development(2008-05) Ng, Michelle Denise; Mueller, Elizabeth J.This professional report examines the key contextual and organizational factors affecting community development corporations (CDCs) in the development of affordable housing. Using the findings of a systematic case study carried out by William Rohe and Rachel Bratt, I offer a detailed discussion of these factors in the context of a number of case studies, including an extensive discussion of the life cycle of Eastside Community Investments (ECI), a CDC that served the Near Eastside Neighborhood in Indianapolis, Indiana. Following this discussion, I explore a number of policy implications of this case study for the community development sector. The effective production of affordable housing involves a number of key players, including CDCs themselves, their intermediaries, the government, and the community; the active participation and commitment of all of these organizations is crucial to the long-term sustained success of the entire industry.Item Creative financing & strategies for mixed-income transit oriented development in Dallas, Texas(2013-08) Partovi, Lauren Neda; Wilson, Barbara B. (Barbara Brown)This study evaluates the current environment for mixed-income transit oriented development along DART rail within the city limits of Dallas. A close look at income and racial disparity is used as the foundation for advocating for a more proactive and aggressive approach to the development of affordable units proximate to affordable transportation choices. Assembling financing for mixed-income TOD projects is especially challenging, and multiple layers of federal, state, and city funding mechanisms are required for achieving the capital requirements of the development. Both typical affordable housing funding methods and new and nontraditional funding methods for multifamily housing were researched and evaluated with the intention to propose possibilities for catalyzing development in DART station areas within the City of Dallas that have, to this point, experienced underdevelopment.Item Design factors in mixed income housing – a comparison between the U.S. and the UK(2009-05) Qi, Meng, active 2009; Mueller, Elizabeth J.Design has played a complicated role in affordable housing in both the U.S. and the UK. These two countries have had fairly different approaches towards their affordable housing policy in the past, but now have both converged to using mixed income housing as a primary method of delivering affordable housing. This report will investigate the role that design plays in the ways that each of these countries administers its mixed income housing programs. Specifically, it will look at how design is used to achieve the goals behind mixed income housing, as well as specific decisions regarding exterior treatment and siting of the units in a mixed income housing development. I will use a case study approach in my research process, focusing on two case studies in the UK, and two case studies in the U.S. In order to obtain my findings, I used key informant interviews, key policy and program documents, and on-site observations. Ultimately, I found that design factors need to be carefully balanced between social equity goals and financial feasibility, and it is important to recognize the limitations of what mixed income housing can achieve for social goals.Item Evaluating the density bonus as a tool for affordable housing production in Austin, TX(2020-05-07) Altazan, Elisabeth Ashleigh; Mueller, Elizabeth J.Inclusionary zoning practices include policies that require or incentivize real estate developers to include affordable housing units in their market-rate developments. In Austin, this is done by a policy mechanism called the density bonus, which offers developers the option to include more density than is allowed in the base zoning in exchange for including affordable units or paying a fee that will be used toward affordable housing development in other locations. Austin has employed density bonus policies since 2003, which have produced 1,665 affordable units and have raised over $6.5 million dollars used toward developing or preserving affordable housing in the city. They City of Austin plans to expand the use of density bonus programs to produce affordable housing in future changes to the land development code. This study evaluates the success of Austin’s density bonus programs and how proposed density bonus programs may perform. Costs and location of density bonus programs and other city-funded affordable housing programs are compared to evaluate the performance of the density bonus programs. The analysis finds density bonus units are much cheaper to the city and out-perform other city-subsidized units in terms of providing affordable housing in areas that do not have existing concentrations of poverty or minority populations. In addition, the study analyzes how local rents and other regulations affect density bonus unit production and finds the proposed density bonus programs are unlikely to be successful without accounting for hyper-local housing market trends. Last, the study offers recommendations for Austin’s density bonus programs based on the analysesItem Halfway homeowners : geospatial and ethnographic analysis of eviction in mobile home parks(2015-05) Sullivan, Mary-Esther; Auyero, Javier; Ekland-Olson, Sheldon; Mueller, Elizabeth; Young, Michael; Ward, Peter MManufactured housing, which houses approximately 22 million Americans, is a material expression of a fundamental shift in U.S. housing policy from the federal allocation to the for-profit development of low-income housing. These policies have contributed to the explosive growth of manufactured housing, now the single largest source of unsubsidized affordable housing in the U.S. Yet, because the majority of manufactured housing is installed in privately operated land-lease parks, the insecurity inherent in much low-income housing is especially tangible in mobile home parks, where residents can be forcibly evicted at any time. To date, no systematic studies locate or examine the socio-spatial characteristics of the turnover and displacement that result from the frequent closure of mobile home parks. To better understand manufactured housing insecurity specifically and forced residential relocation more generally, this mixed-method dissertation utilizes both geospatial analysis and two years of ethnographic research living full time within closing mobile home parks in Florida and Texas where whole communities, hundreds of households, are evicted en masse. Utilizing geographic information systems (GIS) analysis I first construct a geospatial solution to locating formerly unrecorded mobile home park closures and map the location and socio-spatial characteristics of closed parks. I then conduct ethnography within closing mobile home parks, focusing on the household level impacts of eviction, the community-wide responses to displacement, and the particular ways state regulations are enacted and public-private partnerships are formed to relocate residents under different regulatory regimes. I analyze the mechanisms through which local contexts and state-level policies determine the options, resources, and timelines available to the evicted and thus shape the contours of their forced mobility.Item Mexico’s housing paradox : the political economy of inaccessibility and vacancy(2018-09-13) Reyes Ruiz Del Cueto, Laura Alejandra; Mueller, Elizabeth J.; SLETTO, BJORN; WARD, PETER; WILSON, ROBERT; WEGMANN, JACOBNeoliberal restructuring in Mexico drove a considerable mortgage expansion and a housing production boom, arguably with the intention of increasing housing access for lower-middle income formal workers. During the 2000s, numerous households acquired mortgages to buy houses in the fringes of Mexican cities, where local governments have struggled to provide adequate infrastructure and services. Many such families have seen their mortgages and monthly payments swell through the years while their debt remains virtually unchanged, forcing many of them to leave their dwellings behind and return to renting or to living with other relatives closer to the urban core. Numerous newly built developments have thus exhibited alarmingly high housing vacancy rates. By 2010, Mexico had over five million vacant housing units and a 14 percent vacancy rate. Paradoxically, however, about a third of Mexicans still live in poor housing conditions. This research analyzes the influence of recent federal housing finance policy, and urban development practices at the state and local levels, in promoting housing production and vacancy. It also discusses some of the spatial and socioeconomic implications of these development patterns for residents, government and financing institutions, and developers. In particular, this research examines the experiences of two cases: Tijuana, Baja California and Huehuetoca, State of Mexico, chosen for (1) the severity of their vacancy and housing conditions, (2) the amount of housing investment they received in the 2000s, and (3) their contrasting institutional capacity at the local and metropolitan levels. Drawing upon mixed methods and extensive field research, I argue that the coexistence of a housing oversupply and a shortage exposes the tensions between the commodification and the right to housing, and the extent to which the former has trumped the latter. Given the flourishing of construction and real estate interests through state support, Mexican housing policy has served as a politically guided intensification of market rule, rather than as an apolitical and technocratic framework, as neoliberal advocates have often argued. Contrary to the rhetoric of autonomous market-led efficiency, the Mexican government has played a key role in mitigating risks for the construction and financial sectors – and not households. By doing so, housing reforms have lacked a critical analysis of the socioeconomic and political implications of implementing strategies that have backed private interests in the name of expanding home ownership for the poor while in reality many low-income households remain locked out of adequate and affordable homes. The present research has implications for theories regarding how governing regimes operate to facilitate growth. The interactions and relationships between different government levels and private actors and interests since the implementation of a new housing finance and development model in Mexico have stemmed elaborate power structures and a multi-level regime and complex system of governance, distinct from that described by regime theorists whose focus has generally been on local governance (Stone 1989). Furthermore, this research exemplifies the ways in which this multi-level regime has reproduced and intensified socioeconomic and political (decision-making) inequities, ultimately fracturing the housing model itself.Item The rise of renters and renting in Texas colonias(2013-05) Durst, Noah Joseph; Ward, Peter M., 1951-; Wilson, Robert HinesThis report documents the growth of renting in Texas colonias, low-income informal settlements along the US-Mexico border. Historically, owner-occupied self-help and self-managed housing has been the norm in these settlements, so scholarly treatment of renting in colonias has been very limited. I begin with a literature review of housing development and housing policy in colonias, before turning, for comparison, to a discussion of renting in the US as well as in informal settlements in the developing world. Chapter 2 draws upon data from the US Census Bureau to describe the nature and extent of the colonia rental market in the six Texas counties with the largest colonia populations: my analysis reveals that renters now make up more than one in five colonia households. I expand on this discussion by examining differences between renter and owner households, paying particular attention to factors that make renters more vulnerable than owners. Chapter 3 employs a variety of regression models to identify the determinants of varying rental rates in colonias. The results suggest that larger, older, and more densely populated colonias have higher rates of renting. In Chapter 4, I utilize a mixed methods approach -- including household surveys, key informant interviews, and intensive case study interviews -- to a) better understand the tenure decisions of colonia renters and to place such decisions within a context of extreme socio-economic vulnerability and b) examine the factors that incentivize a turn toward renting among property owners. I conclude with a discussion of potential policy solutions to ensure that colonia rental accommodation remains affordable, accessible, and of sufficient quality.Item Smaller is better : barriers to building affordable multifamily housing at a neighborhood scale(2007-05) Keane, Nora; Mueller, Elizabeth J.Low- and moderate-income Americans rely on affordable housing. It is clear that affordable rental housing is needed, but much of what is getting built, especially in the high-growth West and South, gives rise to negative externalities based on the large number of units in the projects. This report looks at objections to large apartment complexes and makes the case for smaller-scale multifamily developments, studies how housing policy in the US has disadvantaged multifamily development, and investigates barriers to small-scale developments relating to mortgage markets, the Low Income Housing Tax Credit, and the models of nonprofit affordable housing providers.