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The Australian government's retreat from funding public housing projects has prompted urban housing providers to trade their run-down housing for better housing, which means that the tenants have to relocate. Details on the tenants' spatial decision support system in improving tenant choices on forced relocation are discussed.

An efficient, effective and informative administration looking after the public housing service will provide homes, helpful programs and opportunities for the needful. The four winners of NAHRO's Award in Excellence in Administrative Innovation are the fraud recovery techniques, operation COPA, scan technology improvement in application process and WFYI, the info channel that has not only improved residents' lives but also eased the pathways of communication.

In the United States, government policies concerning public housing changed dramatically in the early 1990s, leading to the passage of HOPE VI, an ambitious program aimed at overhauling the nation's most distressed public housing developments. One distinctive feature of HOPE VI is that it incorporates a community and supportive services component designed to help raise the incomes of public residents and move them on a path towards financial self-sufficiency. This paper provides a detailed look at the community building and supportive services efforts at Rainier Vista, a HOPE VI redevelopment project in Seattle, Washington. Due to a unique set of circumstances, when granted a HOPE VI award, Rainier Vista was already part of Jobs-Plus, a demonstration project that aimed to increase the earnings of public housing residents. As a result, the staff at Rainier Vista had thought extensively about community and supportive services in advance of receiving the HOPE VI grant, already implementing innovative community building activities and efforts to increase employment rates and earnings of Rainier Vista's residents. The blending of Jobs-Plus and HOPE VI into 'HOPE-Plus' provides a window into the benefits and challenges of developing an effective community and supportive services component of HOPE VI redevelopment, one that is worth considering in the public policy debate over how public investment can be critical in re-shaping impoverished urban environments. Key words: public housing policy, HOPE VI, community development, urban ethnography

This study focused on a cohousing community's use of consensus to make a decision about surfacing a parking area. It revealed that the community's use of consensus decision making allowed the residents to balance three goals: making an appropriate decision, meeting members' needs, and maintaining the community's well-being. Reaching agreement, however, was complicated by members' value differences and discontinuity in their participation. The analysis of this case reveals three qualities characteristic of the enactment of consensus: the role of structured communication within and between group meetings, a tension between maintaining process openness and reaching decision closure, and the expectation that group members will work within the consensus process. The analysis also highlights the importance of timing in the interpretation of conflict in a consensus-oriented group and the role of process change when a group reaches the limits of members' commitment to consensus. Keywords: Consensus; Group Communication; Decision Making; Decision Rules; Cohousing; Functional Theory; Dialectic Tension

The participant perception of neighborhood, economic, and housing well being of residents 4 and 5 years after forced relocation from a public housing complex in Atlanta, Georgia undergoing HOPE VI redevelopment is evaluated. The findings suggest HOPE VI developments are more likely to accomplish their objectives if the existing administration continues full funding of the voucher program rather than implements the cutbacks it is proposing.

Research indicates that consolidated maintenance expenditures by Swedish public housing companies are linked with both rental revenues in the short term and system viability in the long term. Implications for operation of self-sufficient systems and requisite policy-making are discussed.

The government's plans to introduce a swathe of measures to reshape the housing finance system for local councils are discussed. Restructuring of debt will be available only to councils who set up management organizations and get a three-star rating from the Audit Commission.

IN 1935, two years before Franklin Roosevelt signed legislation that would bring large-scale public housing to the United States for the first time, social reformer Catherine Bauer made the case [...]

Summary. Devolution and user participation have had enduring popularity as initiatives in public services in many countries. The 1997 Labour government renewed interest in the UK. However, how devolution and participation work and what they do, particularly in combination, are still not well understood. Research has been handicapped by key conceptual problems over definition, measurement and the identification of effects, and challenged by gaps between rhetoric and reality. Data on combined devolution and user participation through Tenant Management Organisations in English council bowing were used to specify the extent of changes, examine processes and identify the effects. Formal measures alone were insufficient. Other measures and changes in management processes showed that the combination had the potential for significant, but widely varying effects on service performance.

Information regarding the recent management strategies of Section 8 and public housing services is given. Agencies have increased their payment standards from 97 to 110 percent, streamlined the lease up processes for owners and tenants, and instigated an aggressive outreach program to owners.

Research is presented on the rate of homelessness in rural areas of England and Wales, along with an analysis of its relative invisibility to the public eye as compared to its urban counterpart. Reasons include the socio-cultural assumptions of idyllic lifestyles connected with rural regions, which render homelessness inconsistent with such romanticized constructs.

Three professionals in public housing policy and welfare reform discuss its interrelatedness. In addition they address the need for changes by housing authorities to better correlate with changes brought about by welfare reform.

Local housing authorities face challenges but their are also programs in place to help fight those challenges. Housing authorities can promote the low income housing tax credit to encourage builders to provide for low-income families. What federal tax dollars are still available should be spent on improving existing public housing.

An argument is presented favoring the proliferation of communication technology in non-elite or peripheralized housing communities, as it provides a vital link to mainstream society. The advantages and disadvantages of using this technology for surveillance are also discussed. The conclusion is based on a case study of 65 public-housing facilities in Edinburgh and 180 facilities in Glasgow.

Neighborhood Networks is a community-based program that aims to boost the self-sufficiency, employability and economic independence of low-income public housing households and elderlies by offering onsite access to computer and training resources. Developed by the Office of Multifamily Housing of the Dept of Housing and Urban Development in 1995, the initiative sets up computerized learning centers that offer instruction in typing, word processing and computer training as well as basic education and job training. Those who participate are given access to job data banks, online civic and government forums, health and community resources information and techniques on micro-enterprise development.

A growing number of housing authorities with shrinking budgets are adopting strategies that involve community building. This approach directs the energy and efforts of public housing residents toward the fight against poverty and the creation of a supportive social environment. It seeks to transform residents from passive recipients of services to active and responsible leaders in their communities. It encourages residents to set and pursue constructive goals for the community instead of remaining dependent and feeling victimized. Community building programs may include such activities as computer education for residents, parent monitoring of school performance of neighborhood children, child care to allow mothers to join the workforce, and the creation of businesses by residents.

The London borough of Tower Hamlets in England will ballot roughly 13,000 dwellings to a local housing company to resolve the borough's repairs backlog worth 200 million pounds sterling. Tower Hamlets has amassed 23 million pounds sterling from round one of the estates renewal challenge fund for the stock transfer to the Poplar local housing firm. The Chartered Institute of Housing and the Local Government Association are exhorting the government to enable councils to set up quasi-corporations with their housing stock.

Housing and community development agencies can foster stable, aesthetically attractive housing facilities and viable communities. Examples abound dispelling the negative assumptions about government assisted developments while proving that government and public/private partnerships can succeed. The Journal of Housing and Community Development cited housing authorities that were able to contribute to good housing and community development. These include projects in Santa Barbara, CA; Duluth, MN; Capitola, CA; San Jose, CA; San Diego, CA; and Jersey City, NJ. Other worthy projects are those in York, PA; Sacramento, CA; Portland, OR; New York, NY; and San Luis Obispo, CA.

The housing authority of Atlanta, GA, is determined to reinvent public housing in its territory. Through the Olympic Legacy program, the Atlanta Housing Authority (AHA) plans to redevelop or renovate most of its 42 communities, majority of which are sited on major real estate in the city. The program will eradicate about 5,000 of its 15,000 apartment units and replace them with new communities that will cater to a smaller, mixed-income population. In time with this initiative, AHA Exec Dir Renee Lewis Glover is experimenting with a new management approach. Realizing that the low-income community cannot be fully serviced by the authority, management has decided to privatize some of its services.

Troubled housing communities are the result of inefficient management practices and failure to comply with policies and procedures. Unfortunately, when a property becomes troubled, turning it around can be quite costly and difficult. Nevertheless, there are certain actions that housing authorities, management companies or owners can do to return it to performance level. Administrators should have control over the types of applicants they accept. Selection involves looking at their credit and criminal history records, landlord references, and other checks. Administrators should also learn how to handle problem residents by citing violations or evicting them. Administrators should also retain the good residents. A well-trained security force should also be formed.

This paper reports on research undertaken in Hong Kong on the impact of ISO 9000 (International Standards Organization 9000 series standards for Quality Management Systems) quality management standards in the improvement and assurance of quality service and products. The Hong Kong Housing Authority provides an appropriate context and database for this research as it has undertaken to implement the ISO 9000 quality management standards across its range of public housing construction and maintenance services and is able to provide the researchers with 'before' and 'after' scenarios which facilitate measurement of the impact of the standards on service quality.

Successful low income housing programs are often based on how well nonprofit organizations are able to maintain and manage the program. Thus, housing sponsors and their institutional support systems must be well-versed with the fundamentals and value of property and asset management. This approach requires financial and technical support from both local and national governments.

Housing and community development authorities need alternative approaches to low-income housing as a result of the uncertainty over the role of the federal government in public housing funding. In Alexandria, VA, the Redevelopment and Housing Authority, (ARHA) evaluated an older public housing development, the Samuel Madden Homes, with the help of a consulting team led by EDAW Inc. After analysis of resident data plus study of redevelopment and rehabilitation alternatives, ARHA decided to opt for mixed-density redevelopment.

A study of the lease-purchase program of the Cleveland Housing Network (CHN) suggests that the conventional emphasis on homeownership as a gauge for stability does not apply to housing for disadvantaged populations. Low-income families may find more benefit from stable, long-term housing, owned or leased, that is within a supportive community network. CHN also needs to establish efficient property and administrative management practices and encourage client involvement in program administration and the development of supportive community networks.

The trend towards budget reductions is compelling administrative agencies associated with housing and community development to find ways of achieving management and housing stock improvements. The Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), for instance, has unveiled a cost-cutting and reorganization plan called 'Blueprint.' Introduced by Sec. Henry C. Cisneros, this plan proposes the reduction of the HUD workforce from 11,900 to just 7,500 by the start of the 21st century and the integration of 60 HUD programs into three block grants in the latter part of the 1990s. The National Assn. of Housing and Redevelopment Officials, for its part, has come up with its 'Housing and Community Development Program Proposals' which also favor the consolidation of programs into a flexible formula grant. The association is also recommending the deregulation of local housing authorities.

The Dept. of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) proposed 'Reinvention' Blueprint addresses many of the challenges confronting the low-income housing and community development agencies. This proposal advocates the use of tenant-based housing vouchers to enable low-income families to determine where they want to live. Aside from creating a sense of freedom among residents, it will compel local housing authorities (LHAs) to improve and properly maintain their facilities since they will be competing with housing units on the market. Under this system, LHAs will be expected to operate as effectively and as efficiently as real estate management organizations in the private sector. To be able to transform themselves for this new challenge, LHAs will need the help and support of the HUD.

Allowing tenant's participation in the management of public housing complexes in the United States inculcate an interest in social service among women and improves community life. Interviews with 12 African American women indicates that such activity leads to the development of collective discussion and action and the social empowerment of women. Such tenant participation programs are also more effective than other approaches at solving problems in public housing.

The Lorin Farr Subdivision is a prototype housing community in Ogden, UT. Unlike other housing programs, this project combines low-income housing tax credit renters and home owners in a single-family environment. Ogden officials are expecting that other development initiatives will emulate this feature, given the currently increasing housing costs. To faciliate flexibility and creativity in the design and planning of the 24-house community, which was only 4.5 acres small, a unique Infill Zoning ordinance was introduced. This allowed narrower streets and smaller lot sizes. Although the project was completed in merely 240 days, the houses are of exquisite quality. The design also features a neighborhood park, wrought iron fencing and a landscape buffer along a major thoroughfare.