Affordability After Subsidies: Understanding the Trajectories of Former Assisted Housing in Florida

Each year, thousands of units are lost from the assisted rental housing inventory through deterioration and default, subsidy expiration, and market-rate conversion. While a good deal of research and data collection has focused on identifying at-risk developments, less is known about what happens to former assisted developments after they exit income and rent restrictions. This article uses a survey of former assisted properties in Florida to identify their postsubsidy trajectories—that is, as to whether developments continue as rental housing, are converted to condominiums, or leave the housing stock through vacancy and demolition; and for those that continue as rental housing, whether they continue to offer affordable rents. Using logistic regression models, the article examines the property, housing market, and neighborhood characteristics that determine these trajectories. The results show that smaller properties, those that have been out of subsidy programs longer, and those in stronger neighborhood housing markets are more likely to be converted to condominiums. Among developments that continue as rental housing, those that previously had more stringent rent restrictions, those in strong rental submarkets, and those with better transit access tend to become unaffordable compared with previous rent limits.     

Access to Reliable Public Records as Evidence for Freedom of Information in Commonwealth Africa

Abstract

International attention to the benefits of openness for empowering citizens, strengthening economic performance and ending poverty has emphasised the importance of achieving accountability and transparency through freedom of information and open data. The ability to achieve openness depends upon the quality, completeness and accessibility of government records and data. However, chronic problems in managing this information in many Commonwealth countries, particularly in the digital environment, undermine the ability to achieve these goals. There is a critical need to develop and share solutions for managing this essential resource as a basis for digital governance across the Commonwealth, especially in relation to the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals.     

When Someday Is Today: Carrying Forward the History of Old Age and Inheritance into the Age of Medicaid

Hartog, Hendrik. 2012 . Someday All This Will Be Yours: A History of Inheritance and Old Age . Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press. Pp. 353. $29.95 cloth. This review essay of Hendrik Hartog's ( 2012 ) Someday All This Will Be Yours undertakes a brief overview of some of the massive changes in middle‐class planning for old age and inheritance in the United States over the course of the past century, focusing on the increased role of the state as a source of funding and regulation, the rise of the elder law bar, and the resulting new tools and motives for the transfer of property in exchange for care in the age of Medicaid.     

Path-dependent Implementation of the European Qualifications Framework in Education. A Comparison of Norway,Germany and England

Abstract

By comparing the implementation of the European Qualifications Framework (EQF) in three education systems, this article advances the understanding of implementation processes and outcomes. The analytical framework combines concepts of norm diffusion with institutional, political and practical dimensions of implementation. Although a certain degree of norm diffusion is revealed, we find a variety of points of correspondence between national problem definitions and the EQF, varying levels of stakeholder involvement, as well as national institutional robustness against full EQF implementation. The national implementations represent different mind-sets and signify translation processes that reflect continuation of established institutional practices.     

Writing las dissertations,part one: the rationale for an experimential research project

This article describes the impetus for a research project conducted during 2002–2003 into our law students' experiences of undertaking a dissertation module. It also discusses the rationale for the particular methodology and approach we have used to conduct this research, and presents the results. A driving force behind this research project was not only the desire to obtain knowledge for its own sake but also the need to identify and enhance positive aspects of students' experience of this module. We decided to adopt a student led and experiential method of carrying out our research that focuses directly upon the students' lived-experience of engaging in dissertation writing. The rationale for this decision was our acknowledgement that, within the last decade, students are increasingly defining themselves as consumers of educational services and have a legitimate and indeed pivotal role in quality assurance strategies. We also recognised that adopting an experiential method of inquiry, informed by a phenomenological approach, should, in principle, help to empower students by acknowledging their autonomy and encouraging them to engage in critical reflection. Finally, applying this methodology would provide us with precisely the subjectively rich type of research data derived from the students' lived-experience that we sought. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Can epidemiological studies assist in the evaluation of community treatment orders? — The experience of Western Australia and Nova Scotia

Epidemiological studies using administrative databases have several advantages over other methodologies in studying the effectiveness of compulsory community treatment such as community treatment orders (CTOs). We compared patients placed on CTOs in Western Australia with controls drawn from both within the jurisdiction and from another without this measure (Nova Scotia). Although in different countries, the mental health services in both jurisdictions share common characteristics. Notably, we were able to control for forensic history in our comparison within Western Australia. We analysed predictors of admission and number of bed-days using multiple, logistic or Cox regression as appropriate. Of the 274 subjects placed on a CTO, we were able to find controls for up to 96% (n = 265). CTO placement was not associated with reduced admissions or mean bed-days, although there was a threshold effect with a reduced risk of inpatient stays exceeding 100 days. Outpatient contacts were significantly greater for the CTO group. However, we do not know whether the intensity of treatment, or its compulsory nature, effected outcome.     

Which is it you want – equality or maternity leave?

In Alabaster v. Barclays Bank plc and Secretary of State for Social Security (No. 2: [2005] E.W.C.A Civ. 508, [2005] I.R.L.R. 576.) Michelle Alabaster won a grand total of ￡204.53 (plus ￡65.86 interest) after eight years of litigation, which included two visits to the Court of Appeal and one to the European Court of Justice. This marathon resulted from the sex discrimination which Alabaster had alleged in relation to the calculation of her Statutory Maternity Pay (S.M.P.) whilst she was pregnant 10 years earlier. The technicalities of the statutory schemes involved should not be allowed to disguise the important principle which finally emerges in the Court of Appeal and which underlines one of the longstanding criticisms of the equality legislation, namely the requirement that a woman must compare herself with a man in order to establish unlawful sex discrimination.     

Re-imagining crime prevention: controlling corporate crime?

While the discourses and practices of crime prevention are of increasing salience, few criminologists have sought the inclusion of corporate illegalities on such agendas. Relatedly, within criminology, there has been a diminished tendency to think in idealistic, utopian and emancipatory terms. This paper is one small attempt to think in precisely such terms.¹ But it is not an exercise in pure imagination. In particular, the paper makes extended reference to Finland, where recent experience suggests that corporate crime prevention may be feasible, under certain conditions, albeit subject to certain limitations. Thus we consider both the desirability and the feasibility of corporate crime prevention intruding upon the generally narrowly constructed terrain of ‘crime prevention’. We begin with a critique of some of the key aspects of crime prevention discourses – at both theoretical and practical levels – with a particular emphasis upon the extent to which these are both more appropriately and usefully applied to corporate crime prevention, before going on to discuss corporate crime prevention ‘in action’, through a focus upon recent developments in Finland. In a concluding section, we consider various aspects of both the desirability and feasibility of corporate crime prevention.