Gateway to Opportunity? Disparities in Neighborhood Conditions Among Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Residents

A key goal of housing assistance programs is to help lower income households reach neighborhoods of opportunity. Studies have described the degree to which Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) developments are located in high-opportunity neighborhoods, but our focus is on how neighborhood outcomes vary across different subsets of LIHTC residents. We also examine whether LIHTC households are better able to reach certain types of neighborhood opportunities. Specifically, we use new data on LIHTC tenants in 12 states along with eight measures of neighborhood opportunity. We find that compared with other rental units, LIHTC units are located in neighborhoods with higher poverty rates, weaker labor markets, more polluted environments, and lower performing schools, but better transit access. We also find that compared with other LIHTC tenants, poor and minority tenants live in neighborhoods that are significantly more disadvantaged.     

Why Don't Housing Choice Voucher Recipients Live Near Better Schools? Insights from Big Data

Housing choice vouchers provide low‐income households with additional income to spend on rental housing in the private market. The assistance vouchers provide is substantial, offering the potential to dramatically expand the neighborhoods—and associated public schools—that low‐income households can reach. However, existing research on the program suggests that housing choice voucher holders live in neighborhoods with schools that are no better than those accessible to other households with similar incomes. Households, in other words, do not seem to spend the additional income provided by the voucher to access better schools. In this analysis we rely on a large‐scale administrative data set to explore why voucher households typically do not live near to better schools, as measured by school‐level proficiency rates. We combine confidential administrative data from the Department of Housing and Urban Development on 1.4 million housing choice voucher holders in 15 states, with school‐level data from 5,841 different school districts, to examine why the average housing voucher holder does not live near to higher‐performing schools than otherwise similar households without vouchers. Specifically, we use the large‐scale administrative data set to test whether voucher holders living in areas with good schools nearby and slack housing markets move toward better schools when schools become salient for them—that is, when their oldest child becomes school eligible. We take advantage of the thick sample of households with young children provided through our administrative data to implement both a household fixed effects and a regression discontinuity design. Together these analyses shed light on whether voucher households are more likely to move toward better schools when schools are most relevant, and how market conditions shape that response. We find that families with vouchers are more likely to move toward a better school in the year before their oldest child meets the eligibility cutoff for kindergarten, suggesting salience matters. Further, the magnitude of the effect is larger in metropolitan areas with a relatively high share of affordable rental units located near high‐performing schools and in neighborhoods in close proximity to higher‐performing schools. Results suggest that, if given the appropriate information and opportunities, more voucher families would move to better schools when their children reach school age.     

Victimization, posttraumatic stress disorder symptomatology, and later nonsuicidal self-harm in a birth cohort

This longitudinal population-based study examined pathways to nonsuicidal self-harm (NSSH) in relation to childhood sexual abuse (CSA), assault victimization in early adulthood, posttraumatic stress disorder symptomatology (PTSD), and other mental disorders. At age 21, 476 men and 455 women completed interviews on assault victimization, PTSD, and other mental disorders. At age 26, they completed independent interviews on self-harm and childhood sexual abuse (CSA). Multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted to determine predictors for NSSH at age 26. For men, anxiety and depressive disorders at age 21 were the only significant predictors of NSSH at age 26. For women, victimization, PTSD, and other anxiety disorders at age 21 all significantly predicted NSSH. CSA predicted later NSSH only indirectly, by increasing the risk of anxiety disorders among men and of assault victimization among women. In conclusion, pathways to nonsuicidal self-harm differed by sex. For women there were direct links with assault victimization and PTSD in early adulthood, whereas for men only internalizing disorders predicted future NSSH.     

古埃及亡灵崇拜的原因及其文化蕴涵

自然崇拜、亡灵崇拜和法老崇拜是古埃及宗教的核心内容。亡灵崇拜是埃及宗教发展的中间环节,因而具有承上启下的独特作用。亡灵崇拜是埃及自然崇拜发展的必然结果,反映了埃及由原始社会向奴隶社会过渡的历史,因而是人间社会力量的折射。亡灵崇拜还受到埃及人思维模式和尼罗河人文地理环境的影响。亡灵崇拜中蕴涵着埃及文明的重要信息。金字塔文、棺文和亡灵书等死者之书反映了埃及当时的社会变迁、道德风尚和民族习俗,蕴涵着丰富的文化信息;在亡灵崇拜观念支配下进行的雕像、绘画,反映了当时的艺术水平与大众审美;木乃伊制作、金字塔建筑等冥世活动中蕴涵着埃及人的死亡哲学。     

The low income housing tax credit and racial segregation

This paper addresses a critical but almost unexamined aspect of the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program – whether its use (and in particular, the siting of developments in high-poverty/high-minority neighborhoods), is associated with increased racial segregation in the metropolitan area. Using data from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Census, supplemented with data on the racial composition of LIHTC tenants in three states, we examine three potential channels through which the LIHTC could affect segregation: where LIHTC units are built relative to where other low income households live, who lives in these tax credit developments, and changes in neighborhood racial composition in neighborhoods that receive tax credit projects. The evidence on each of these channels suggests that LIHTC projects do not contribute to increased segregation, even those in high poverty neighborhoods. We find that increases in the use of tax credits are associated with declines in racial segregation at the metropolitan level.     

The Path to Political Substance: Exploring the Mediated Discourse Surrounding Controversial Media Texts

This article proceeds from the assumption that entertainment texts—particularly controversial ones—function in a broad intertextual field and that their political significance does not lie solely in their value as stand-alone texts, or in their direct influence on political knowledge, attitudes, opinions, and behaviors, but in their ability to instigate politically relevant discussions in other media venues. Focusing on the mediated discourse surrounding two controversial U.S. docudramas, The Reagans and The Path to 9/11, this study examines the political qualities of the public discourse surrounding these docudramas in the U.S. news media and investigates which factors were significant predictors of political substance in this discourse. Based on a distinction between “issue substance” and “media substance” as the two major types of political substance that emerge in the discourse surrounding controversial texts, the analysis demonstrates how these types of political substance varied across the two docudramas and across various dimensions of the discourse, among them the time in which the discussion took place. The analytical framework presented in this article is offered as a platform for future examinations of the contribution of media-centered political scandals to public discourse, the conditions under which entertainment texts spur substantive political discussions, and the complex interactions between journalism, entertainment, and politics in contemporary media environments.     

古埃及雕刻的主要特征与艺术思想

埃及是人类文明的发祥地之一。古埃及人创造了高度的古代文明,其中最具代表性的是他们发明的象形文字、以及闪烁着文明之光的金字塔、木乃伊和神庙。雕刻艺术是联系这些文明载体的纽带。本文拟分析金字塔、木乃伊和神庙雕刻的主要特征及其艺术思想,以期加强我国在这方面的学术研究。循环往复的永恒性古埃及最早的雕刻形式是象形文字,希腊人称为“神圣的雕刻”。在这方面的象形文字是刻在石头上的图画。埃及雕刻具有持久性的风格。与古埃及雕刻相关联的古埃及雕塑在3000年间显示的变化不大。在一般人看来,埃及第三王朝(公元前2700~2565年)的…     

The What,Where, and When of Place-Based Housing Policy’s Neighborhood Effects

Ever-scarce affordable housing production resources, in addition to their primary function of providing housing for those in need, are increasingly enlisted for the dual goals of strengthening distressed communities and increasing access to higher opportunity neighborhoods. Information on spillovers can inform investment decisions over time and across communities. We leverage recent, high-quality research on neighborhood effects of Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) production, synthesizing evidence according to neighborhood context. We also summarize the evidence on project features moderating impacts of publicly subsidized, place-based rental housing, in general. We conclude that context matters. Producing LIHTC housing in distressed neighborhoods positively impacts the surrounding neighborhood—in terms of modest property value gains and increased safety. By contrast, higher opportunity neighborhoods experience small property value reductions, and no impacts on crime. Big questions remain, however, about impact heterogeneity—via tenant mix, property design, and ongoing property management, as examples—with the scarcity of systematic data representing one of the field’s largest constraints.     

Can a 12-step program work in methadone maintenance treatment?

Three consecutive, professionally led (as opposed to self-help) groups following the 12-step program (TSP) were integrated into a methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) program that included 32 heroin-addicted individuals in recovery. This report describes our experience in meeting the challenges that arose and our conclusions regarding the therapeutic potential of this integration. A professional therapeutic staff guided the groups. In-depth interviews of 10 participants and the reflections of the group leaders provided data for learning about the groups' experience. Initially the participants rejected the concepts of Step 1, powerlessness and unmanageability of life. The assimilation of Step 4 (defining character defect) also aroused some resistance. The participants eventually adopted the pragmatic aspects of TSP, including its terminology. The establishment of a common language of recovery helped to create group coherence and a sense of belonging, and helped to meet the needs of those who felt stigmatized by both the nonaddicted and addicted population undergoing nonmethadone recovery. TSP could be adapted to various aspects of daily life, produced a sense of self-efficacy, and stimulated motivation for change. Therapeutic implications are discussed.