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What determines how many adults live in a house? How do people divide themselves up among households? Average household sizes vary substantially, both over time and in the cross-section. In this paper, we describe how a variety of government policies affect living arrangements, intentionally or not. Using data from a survey of households in New York City, we find that these incentives appear to have an impact. Specifically, households receiving these housing and income subsidies are smaller on average (measured by number of adults). The impacts appear to be considerably larger than those that would occur if the programs were lump-sum transfers. Small average household size can be extremely expensive in terms of physical and environmental resources, higher rents, and possibly homelessness. Thus, we encourage policymakers to pay greater heed to the provisions built into various social policies that favor smaller households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nonprofit organizations play a critical role in U.S. housing policy, a role typically justified by the claim that their housing investments produce significant neighbor-hood spillover benefits. However, little work has actually been done to measure these impacts on neighborhoods. This paper compares the neighborhood spillover effects of city-supported rehabilitation of rental housing undertaken by nonprofit and for-profit developers, using data from New York City. To measure these benefits, we use increases in neighboring property values, estimated from a difference-in-difference specification of a hedonic regression model. We study the impacts of about 43,000 units of city-supported housing completed during the 1980s and 1990s, and our sample of property transactions includes nearly 300,000 individual sales. We find that both nonprofit and for-profit projects generate significant, positive spillover effects. This finding in itself is significant, given the widespread skepticism about the impact of subsidized housing on neighborhoods. We also find some differences across sectors. First, the impact of nonprofit housing remains stable over time, whereas the effect of for-profit housing declines slightly with time. Second, while large for-profit and nonprofit developments deliver similar benefits, in the case of small projects, for-profit developments generate greater impacts than their nonprofit counterparts. These differences are consistent with theoretical predictions. In particular, in the presence of information asymmetries with respect to housing quality, the non-distribution constraint should lead nonprofits to invest more than for-profits in developing and maintaining features that benefit the broader community. Meanwhile, the fact that scale makes a difference to nonprofit impacts may reflect the capacity constraints often faced by smaller nonprofits. ©2006 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we investigate the spatial extent of the housing search. Using the concepts of mental map and awareness space, we argue that search space is affected by households' preferences, what is available on the housing market, and the use of information channels as well as their interactions. We hypothesize that households whose members disagree with each other have a larger search spaces than those whose members agree. Furthermore, the supply in the housing market and the use of different information channels may influence the search space differently for agreeing versus disagreeing households. We collected data from face-to-face interviews with 82 households (couples with or without children) who purchased a home in the New York City area between 2004 and 2009. The results support our hypotheses, suggesting that intra-household dynamics plays an important role in housing search. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peter Marcuse war ein wichtiger Autor in der internationalen kritischen Stadt- und Wohnforschung. Seine Arbeiten, u. a. zu Gentrifizierung und Wohnungspolitik, boten immer wieder Anknüpfungspunkte auch für soziale städtische Bewegungen in New York, Berlin und anderen Städten. Anlässlich seines Todes im März 2022 diskutieren vier renommierte Wissenschaftler:innen über sein Werk und dessen Bedeutung für ihr eigenes Schaffen und für aktuelle Kämpfe für ein Recht auf Stadt und ein Recht auf Wohnen. Peter Marcuse was an important author in international critical urban and housing research. His works, among others on gentrification and housing policy, repeatedly offered points of departure for social urban movements in New York, Berlin and other cities. On the occasion of his death in March 2022, four renowned scholars discuss his work and its significance for their own thinking and for current struggles for a right to the city and a right to housing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Housing affordability is the main policy challenge for most large cities in the world. Zoning changes, rent control, housing vouchers, and tax credits are the main levers employed by policymakers. How effective are they at combatting the affordability crisis? We build a dynamic stochastic spatial equilibrium model to evaluate the effect of these policies on the well-being of its citizens. The model endogenizes house prices, rents, construction, labour supply, output, income, and wealth inequality, the location decisions of households within the city as well as inter-city migration. Its main novel features are risk, risk aversion, and incomplete risk-sharing. We calibrate the model to the New York metropolitan statistical area. Housing affordability policies carry substantial insurance value but affect aggregate housing and labour supply and cause misallocation in labour and housing markets. Housing affordability policies that enhance access to this insurance especially for the neediest households create substantial net welfare gains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The capitalization of urban property markets intensifies the contradictions between housing as use-value affordability versus exchange-value asset accumulation, and exacerbates displacement pressures. Policies designed to deal with these contradictions-public housing and rent regulations- allow some low-income renters to resist displacement, particularly in gentrifying neighborhoods. Unfortunately, the resulting empirical configuration has been interpreted in ways that cast doubt on the extent of displacement, its causal links to gentrification, and the necessity of protective policies. In this paper we present an alternative interpretation, using New York City as a case study to analyze the spatial evolution of displacement pressures amidst the restructuring of an embattled yet vital municipal welfare state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To assess the impact of a New York City supportive housing program on housing stability and preventable emergency department (ED) visits/hospitalizations among heads of homeless families with mental and physical health conditions or substance use disorders.Data Sources: Multiple administrative data from New York City and New York State for 966 heads of families eligible for the program during 2007-12.Study Design: We captured housing events and health care service utilization during 2 years prior to the first program eligibility date (baseline) and 2 years postbaseline. We performed sequence analysis to measure housing stability and compared housing stability and preventable ED visits and hospitalizations between program participants (treatment group) and eligible applicants not placed in the program (comparison group) via marginal structural modeling.Data Collection/extraction Methods: We matched electronically collected data.Principal Findings: Eighty-seven percent of supportive housing tenants experienced housing stability in 2 years postbaseline. Compared with unstably housed heads of families in the comparison group, those in the treatment group were 0.60 times as likely to make preventable ED visits postbaseline (95% CI = 0.38, 0.96).Conclusions: Supportive housing placement was associated with improved housing stability and reduced preventable health care visits among homeless families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While public programmes, rent controls and subsidy schemes have not resolved New York’s historic and long-standing housing crisis, they have been important in dampening the housing problems of low-income New Yorkers. Along with an encroaching neo-liberal hegemony, however, since the 1990s redistributive policies have come under growing pressure. This article focuses on the neo-liberal restructuring of the city’s rental market and the effects on housing affordability. First, we outline the most crucial reforms and policy changes, at various scales, that have impacted the rental market in recent decades. Second, we demonstrate, using survey data, how reforms have affected the rental market structure before assessing how supply changes have affected affordability. We find that policy reforms have led to a reduction in inexpensive rental units in the city, reshaping patterns of affordability among different income groups, with particularly negative outcomes for low-income households, specifically among Black and Minority Ethnic Groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT: This article examines residential vacancy patterns in Buffalo, NY, using data from a unique data set. It includes variables from HUD Aggregate USPS Administrative Data on Address Vacancies, the American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year estimates for 2005-2009, housing choice voucher (HCV) records of local public housing agencies, and municipal in rem property records. Multiple regression is used to identify significant relationships between vacancy patterns, socioeconomic characteristics, and institutional factors. The findings from this analysis suggest that the percent of vacant residential properties increases in census tracts with elevated poverty rates, higher percentages of renters receiving rental assistance, and long-term vacancies. They also suggest that the percent of abandoned residential properties increases in census tracts with highly concentrated black populations, elevated poverty rates, long-term vacancies, and higher percentages of business addresses. We conclude that these relationships are unique to older core cities experiencing systemic population and job losses. These cities struggle with a distinct type of long-term vacant and abandoned structures, which we label zombie properties. They can be contrasted with vacant and abandoned properties in transitional or regenerating areas. We offer recommendations for further analysis of zombie properties in these urban settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problem, research strategy, and findings: High-rise public housing has been entirely discredited in the United States as a legitimate affordable housing planning strategy because of notorious failures in large cities such as St. Louis and Chicago. Missing from the planning literature is the long-term achievement record of America's largest operator of high-rise public housing, the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), which still operates 2,600 buildings primarily in modernist tower-in-the-park superblocks for 403,995 authorized tenants. This article assembles and analyzes historical and contemporary materials to create a portrait of functioning American tower-block public housing. The article discusses both contextual factors (New York's transit network, density, and diversity) and successful long-term management in three areas (daily operations, tenant selection, and lobbying) as key to the NYCHA's preservation of public housing. Takeaway for practice: In operations, NYCHA has maintained large front-line staffing on project grounds that play a critical role both in maintenance and social order. In tenant selection, administrators for decades have maintained greater social mixture and better finances by recruiting and retaining working families and, at the same time, enforcing social control through heavy policing. In politics, NYCHA has successfully lobbied for additional federal and city support. Long-term challenges to project preservation and current challenges in New York are also discussed. The findings raise the possibility of high-density urban towers for low-income residents in strong market cities, provided that sufficient attention is paid to design, tenancy, financing, and social control. Research support: None. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Using New York City as a case study, this article examines the extent to which current affordable rental housing programs and policies violate fair housing standards and exacerbate socio-economic inequality. New York City Housing and Vacancy Survey data are analyzed with Theil's entropy and information indices and logistic regression to pinpoint the sources of racial and ethnic segregation and inequality in specific types of rental housing. This study offers three major findings. First, despite increasing neighborhood diversity, Blacks and Latinos are significantly segregated from Whites, Asians, and other racial and ethnic groups in certain types of affordable housing. Second, race and ethnicity have a greater impact than socio-economic status on which type of housing a family occupies. Third, differences in employment, income, and poverty indicate that affordable housing located within mixed-income, multiple-family dwellings offers significant advantages over cluster developments such as public housing, which compound racial, ethnic, and socio-economic inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problem: Policymakers and community development practitioners view increasing subsidized owner-occupied housing as a mechanism to improve urban neighborhoods, but little research studies the impact of such investments on community amenities. Purpose: We examine the impact of subsidized owner-occupied housing on the quality of local schools and compare them to the impacts of city investments in rental units. Methods: Using data from the New York City Department of Education (DOE) and the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), we estimate three main sets of regressions, exploring student characteristics, school resources, and school outcomes. Results and conclusions: The completion of subsidized owner-occupied housing is associated with a decrease in schools' percentage of free-lunch eligible students, an increase in schools' percentage of White students, and, controlling for these compositional changes, an increase in scores on standardized reading and math exams. By contrast, our results suggest that investments in rental housing have little, if any, effect. Takeaway for practice: Policies promoting the construction of subsidized owner-occupied housing have solidified in local governments around the country. Our research provides reassurance to policymakers and planners who are concerned about the spillover effects of subsidized, citywide investments beyond the households being directly served. It suggests that benefits from investments in owner occupancy may extend beyond the individual level, with an increase in subsidized owner-occupancy bringing about improvements in neighborhood school quality. Research support: None. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how local public administrators, nonprofit providers, and elected officials in the suburbs of Erie County, NY perceive impediments to fair housing. This article is based on research conducted from 2007-2008 for the Analysis of Impediments for Fair Housing Choice in Erie County, NY. The research involved an examination of trends related to fair housing and housing discrimination complaints between 2000 and 2006. It also involved a series of focus group interviews with local public administrators, nonprofit providers, and elected officials. The results from this research indicate that key stakeholders emphasize specific issues and groups when discussing impediments to fair housing. These predispositions result in uneven policy implementation. In particular, there is a tendency to emphasize impediments encountered by the elderly while paying less attention to those impacting minorities, families, the disabled, and the poor. The article concludes with our recommendations to promote a more balanced approach to fair housing in suburban communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many cities throughout the United States require developers of new residential construction to provide a minimum number of accompanying off-street parking spaces. However, critics argue that these requirements increase housing costs by bundling an oversupply of parking with new housing and by reducing the number of units developers could otherwise fit on a given lot. Furthermore, the requirements reduce the subsequent direct costs of car ownership by forcing up-front, or subsidizing, consumption of parking spaces, which leads to increases in auto-use and its related externalities. Such critics advocate eliminating or at least reducing the requirements to be more responsive to locational context, particularly proximity to transit. In this article, we explore the theoretical objections to minimum parking requirements and the limited empirical literature. We then use lot-level data and GIS to analyze parking requirements in New York City to determine to what extent they are already effectively sensitive to transit proximity. Finally, we examine developer response to parking requirements by comparing the number of spaces that are actually built to the number required by applicable zoning law. Our results indicate that the per-unit parking requirement in New York is, on average, lower in areas near rail transit stations, but the required number of spaces per square foot of lot area is higher, on average, in transit accessible areas. We also find that by and large, developers tend to build only the bare minimum of parking required by zoning, suggesting that the minimum parking requirements are binding for developers, as argued by critics, and that developers do not simply build parking out of perceived marked need. Our results raise the possibility that even in cities with complex and tailored parking requirements, there is room to tie the requirements more closely to contextual factors. Further, such changes are likely to result in fewer parking spaces from residential developers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the 1960s, policy makers at three levels of government attempted to place New York's public housing in middle-income neighborhoods. The high cost of providing public housing, a desire for economically segregated neighborhoods and racial prejudice caused voters to reject this reform of housing policy. Since voter rejection caused a reduction in public housing construction, deterioration and abandonment of existing housing acquired added significance. By 1970, the consensus view among public leaders was that rent control caused housing abandonment and that liberalization of rent control was needed. Thus, public policy targets in the low-income housing market shifted from emphasis on construction programs to emphasis on preservation of existing housing. In the future, further information on the cost and difficulty of housing preservation is likely to require additional adjustments in housing policy targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the meanings and uses of self-help housing practices by focusing on two quite distinct cases--the reform movement for tenant self-management in New York City and the "rehab-squatters movement" in West Berlin. In New York tenant self-management has been incorporated into the current repertoire of municipal housing programs to a degree unimaginable a decade ago, affecting the lives of several thousand poor tenants. Self help activities focused not merely on housing, but addressing virtually every facet of everyday life, have arisen in the past decade or so on the basis of, and against, an increasingly crisis-ridden system of the material and reproduction of labor power, i.e. the reproduction of labor power organized by the capitalist state. The centrality of the state in this process is not coincidental, although it is contradictory. Rather, the state has been the key institutional means by which the relationship between labor and capital was restructured during the years of the depression, the Second World War and the immediate postwar period.

A three-year demonstration project in public housing in Syracuse, sponsored by the Syracuse University Youth Development Center, was originally conceived as an effort to help housing tenants use existing community agencies by facilitating referral, but this aspect of the project was soon de-emphasized due to lack of suitable agencies. Characteristics of low-income tenant families and their major problems are described. Techniques used in casework with families in this project are defined and illustrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]