A practical analysis of shared‐appreciation mortgages

Abstract

When the development of large‐scale public housing projects was discontinued in the 1970s in both Canada and the United States, the policy response was very different. This article reviews the nature of the dissimilar low‐income housing policy paths, documenting the role of federal housing policy in the evolution of a significant nonprofit “third sector” in Canada's housing system; the decision of the U.S. federal government to rely on the private sector for subsidized rental supply; and, with very little help from the federal government, the ‘bottom‐up” attempt to develop a nonprofit housing sector in communities throughout the United States. In Canada, a permanent stock of good‐quality, nonprofit social housing was created along with a growing and increasingly competent community‐based housing development sector.

The Canadian experience demonstrates that it takes time to build the capacity of the nonprofit sector. The U.S. experience demonstrates that there is a great deal of community‐based talent ready and willing to provide nonprofit housing if reliable and adequate funding is available. Canada has made outstanding progress relative to the United States in the area of affordable housing supply, creating yet another small but significant difference in the quality of life for lower income households. The general Canadian approach to consistent national support of nonprofit and cooperative housing can be applied in the United States. Canada's relative success is not based on unique structural or systemic differences—that is, it is a matter of political choice and political will. The United States should look to Canada's 20‐year experience to determine whether some of the mechanisms used to support Canada's nonprofit sector might be transferable to the United States.     

Federalism and suitable housing for the frail elderly: A comparison of policies in Canada and the United States

Abstract

The frail elderly have special multidimensional housing needs beyond affordability, including shelter that is more adaptive to reduced function and offers supportive services. Suitable housing for this population comprises three policy areas—housing, health care, and social services. In a federal system, development and implementation of policies in these areas involves participation of several levels of government and the nongovernmental sector. This paper uses federalism as a conceptual framework to examine and compare these policy areas in Canada and the United States.

In both countries, general national housing policies—relying heavily on the nongovernmental sector and characterized by joint federal‐provincial programs in Canada and by important local government roles and age‐specific programs in the United States‐have benefited the elderly. The effects of such policies on the frail elderly, however, have been less positive because of the general lack of essential human services and, to a lesser degree, health care that enables them to live outside institutions. This is especially true in the United States, where health care policy is fragmented and is dominated by a private insurance system, partial federal financing of health insurance for the elderly, and tense federal‐state relations in financing health care for the poor. Although Canadian policies and programs operate autonomously and more uniformly within a national health plan, neither country has a universal, comprehensive long‐term care system. Geographically diverse patterns of social services, funded by grants to states and provinces and the nonprofit sector, are common to both countries. However, the United States has inadequately funded age‐specific programs and has relied on a growing commercial service provision. Housing outcomes for frail elders are moving in the right direction in both countries; however, Canada seems to be better positioned, largely because of its health care system. As increased decentralization continues to characterize the three policy areas that affect suitable housing for frail elders, the United States can learn from Canada's negotiated federalism approach to more uniform solutions to merging housing and long‐term care.     

Mandatory Versus Incentive-Based State Zoning Reform Policiesfor Affordable Housing in the United States:A Comparative Assessment

To break the chain of exclusionary zoning and produce affordable housing, mandatory state zoning reform policies have been in place for a couple decades in the United States. Their success is often constrained by local resistance and noncompliance. Some scholars argue that the lack of incentives to communities for affordable housing production is one of the main reasons for their resistance to state mandates. At present, no incentive-based state zoning reform policy is at work except in Massachusetts. Inclusionary zoning policies do offer incentives to developers but not to communities. This article examines the strengths and weaknesses of mandatory state policies and Massachusetts's incentive-based policy and offers policy insights for the future.     

How Location Efficient Is LIHTC? Measuring and Explaining State-Level Achievement

A growing recognition that the cost of transportation should be included in calculations of housing affordability has led to efforts to promote location efficiency (LE) in affordable housing policy. Because the program is responsible for most new affordable housing in the United States, the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program has the potential to be a link between housing affordability and LE. This research analyzes the extent to which LIHTC units built between 2007 and 2011 were in location-efficient places. Ordinary least squares regression analysis was used to test the role of market, policy, developer, and urban form factors in determining state-level LIHTC LE. We find that for the nation as a whole, from a quarter to half of LIHTC units added during this period were in location-efficient places, depending on the LE criteria applied. State-by-state comparisons showed wide variation in both our absolute measures of LIHTC LE and our relative measures of LIHTC LE compared with overall housing in each state. State policy and nonprofit developers were associated with higher LIHTC LE and had a positive effect on a state’s ability to outperform its underlying urban form.     

The convergence of nonequity housing models in Canada: Changes to housing policy since 1990

Abstract

This study examines the impact of housing policy convergence on the nonequity housing system in Ontario, Canada. Ontario has four distinct nonequity housing models— public, nonprofit cooperative, municipal nonprofit, and private nonprofit. This article argues that since 1990, housing policy in Canada, and particularly in Ontario, has become increasingly influenced by the neoconservative agenda of downsizing and decentralization of government functions found in the United States.

The findings reveal that changes to housing policy have caused the convergence of nonequity housing models in the areas of management and administration. Drawing on the present findings and on an experimental project in tenant management, this article argues that the trend toward convergence will continue and will likely result in one nonequity housing model in Canada. This pattern is interpreted in light of the neoconservative agenda of both countries that emphasizes private sector solutions to housing low‐income families.     

Privatizing housing: An assessment of U.K. experience

Abstract

This article describes the way in which the government of the United Kingdom has implemented the policy of privatization with respect to housing since coming to power in 1979. It details the main elements and diversity of the policy; it evaluates the results in terms of tenure change, allocation of housing services, prices, and investment; it examines the emerging problems of affordability and access; and it suggests that there have been considerable benefits from both privatization and deregulation in terms of greater efficiency and responsiveness.

However, it also stresses the extent to which government involvement in housing, although undoubtedly shifting away from direct provision, has reemerged through both income‐related and supply subsidies to other landlords. The article concludes that in the United Kingdom, unlike the United States, the provision of adequate housing for all is still regarded as a government responsibility.     

PRIVATE PRISON MANAGEMENT: PANACEA OR PRETENCE?*

Abstract: Private prison management has been examined as a policy initiative by at least two state governments in Australia. Queensland boasts the only privately managed gaol in the country, and New South Wales has expressed interest in the possibility of contracting out the management of one of its new gaols. In the United States where it had its genesis, private management of adult correctional facilities has existed since the mid-1980s. Governments in America at federal, state and local levels have turned to private prison management because of budgetary constraints and chronic levels of overcrowding in their prisons and gaols due to an escalating rate of crime and incarceration. Private prison management in the United States has provided a last resort to a crisis situation. Among policy-makers in Australia there seems little appreciation of the factors which have motivated private prison management in the United States. In Queensland and New South Wales there is a view at government level that the private sector may well be a better manager of gaols than government, and that private management will achieve cost savings for government. Even in the United States, however, private prison management is still at an experimental stage and there is no evidence as yet to support assumptions about superior management and cost effectiveness. Governments in Australia are not experiencing the same crises which have prompted certain governments in America to adopt private prison management. Instead of introducing private corporations into the field of corrections in Australia, governments should be attempting to improve the performance of their own gaols and to make greater use of the private sector in those areas where its contribution can be of most significance — in the design and construction of prison facilities.     

Civil Rights,Federalism, and the Administrative Process: Favorable Outcomes by Federal,State, and Local Agencies in Housing Discrimination Complaints

Some theorists argue that cooperative intergovernmental relations are critical to policy implementation in the United States. This assertion is explored in the context of fair housing enforcement by comparing favorable administrative outcomes in fair housing complaints at the federal, state, and local levels from 1989 to 2004. What conclusions can be drawn from this systematic comparison of intergovernmental enforcement in one policy area over an extended period of time? First, cooperative federalism works well in fair housing enforcement. Second, of special significance, state civil rights agencies resolve complaints in favor of complainants nearly as often as the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and localities sometimes do so even more frequently.     

The local political economy of the regulatory state: Governing affordable housing in England

Regulatory governance involves the use of heterogeneous mechanisms to extract welfare gains from market-based processes. While often viewed as a depoliticization mechanism, here, we explore a distinctly political manifestation of regulatory governance. Our study focuses on the governance of affordable housing in England, specifically on local authorities' use of ‘Section 106′ (S106) powers to compel private developers to include affordable housing in new developments. We show that, following the financial crisis, the governance of affordable housing shifted from a partisan to a valence issue. As the crisis increased the issue salience of affordable housing, left-wing authorities' hitherto higher tendency to intervene was eroded in the midst of a broad-based increase in S106 deployment. In addition to extending insights into the political economy of regulatory state intervention, our findings shed valuable light on the undersupply of affordable housing in England.     

Current practices for procuring affordable housing: The Canadian context

Abstract

This article describes the current housing system in Canada, focusing particularly on the various mechanisms still available for providing affordable housing. Beginning with an overview of the Canadian housing system, it provides a brief history of Canadian housing policy and program initiatives instrumental in developing the inventory of affordable housing available today.

Current practices and procedures in private lending for affordable housing are highlighted. A discussion of current initiatives available to provide affordable housing follows, with a focus on the role of government, the third sector, and new partnership arrangements implemented to encourage more affordable housing. The conclusion highlights recent changes, the current state of the affordable housing sector, and the impact these changes may have on low‐ and moderate‐income households in Canada.     

Homeownership and Wealth among Low- and Moderate-Income Households

Abstract

Although currently neither politically nor fiscally feasible, the notion that access to inexpensive, presumably high‐quality housing should be a government‐guaranteed universal right would be a terrible idea even if it were popular and affordable. The proposition fails on three counts. It isn't necessary. It doesn't make economic sense. And, most compelling, were such a policy to be implemented, its putative beneficiaries would not thank us.

Even if we should not promulgate “a right to decent, affordable housing,” we want to assure that all Americans have access to decent, affordable housing. Happily, we can count on the private housing market (coupled with rising prosperity) to serve 95 percent of the country's households. Serving the remaining 5 percent requires concerted measures to scale back onerous housing regulations that prevent the private housing sector from meeting the needs of lower‐income and untypical households.     

经济适用房"内循环"制度——住房政策社会保障性的回归

《北京住房建设规划(2006-2010)》中提出了经济适用房的“内循环”制度,这一制度的构建标志着经济适用房政策由政策性商品房向保障性公共住房转变。这一转变在实践中将有利于在制度上实现经济适用房的循环使用,切实有效地保障城镇中低收入家庭的基本住房需求。此外,这一制度创新在理论上是从经济政策向社会政策的一次回归,有利于政府应对住房领域日益复杂化的社会问题。     

The Puzzle of Private Rulemaking: Expertise, Flexibility, and Blame Avoidance in U.S. Regulation

The standard federal regulatory process in the United States involves notice and comment by government bureaus. This traditional agency model of public rulemaking faces difficulties in taking full advantage of the expertise of stakeholders, and it has been criticized as being slow and inflexible; therefore, it is not surprising that alternative institutional forms involving the delegation of rulemaking to stakeholders have appeared. Yet it is surprising that private rulemaking has been used to allocate valuable goods such as transplant organs. Why is private rulemaking used as an allocative institution of governance? The answer recognizes the advantages it offers in certain rapidly changing circumstances in which essential expertise inheres in the stakeholders, as well as the asymmetric political rewards involved in the allocation of highly valued goods, which create incentives for politicians to avoid blame by delegating substantive rulemaking authority to nongovernmental organizations.     

Philanthropy and the housing crisis: The dilemmas of private charity and public policy

Abstract

American philanthropy has historically sought to address the nation's housing crisis, especially among the poor. This article compares private philanthropy's response to the housing crisis in two important eras of economic transformation: the period between the Civil War and World War I (the Progressive Era), when the United States was undergoing large‐scale urbanization and industrialization, and the period from the 1980s through today, when the United States became integrated in a global economy and confronted the shock of deindustrialization, widening economic disparities, and deepening urban decay.

Following the historical review, the article focuses briefly on the current housing crisis and the dilemmas that private foundations and nonprofit organizations face in trying to develop a coherent strategy to address the problem. It closes with a proposal for a partnership between private foundations and housing organizations that can address the need to change both public opinion and public policy toward housing.     

The Provision of Highways in Canada and the Federal Government

This article presents the role of the Canadian federal governmentin the provision of highways since 1867, describes the CanadianNational Highway System, and presents 1989–1998 data onhighway-related revenues and expenditures by the governmentsin both Canada and the United States. The article then examineswhy the Canadian federal government intervention on highwaysis incontestably smaller than that of the federal governmentin the United States. Our hey finding is that the policy ofthe Canadian government in the provision of highways since Confederationin 1867 can be characterized as "no policy." Its interventionsare best characterized by various ephemeral programs, the mainpurposes of which are often other than coordinating or promotinghighway construction.     

Creating a Sustainable Manned Orbital Spaceflight Industry

Since the launch of the Sputnik satellite and the start of the modern space age, nations have sought to capitalize on the scientific, political, and economic returns that stem from that frontier. In the United States, national policy guides the development of the space industry as an economic force and is itself guided by recommendations from periodic committees and other bodies. Although these policies have produced clear scientific and political rewards, the economic results are more mixed. In particular, manned orbital spaceflight has long struggled with issues of sustainability. This article uses a macroeconomic approach to identify the subtle but critical differences between manned orbital spaceflight and the rest of the space industry that increase the cost structure of the industry and work against its sustainability. In recognizing these differences, the authors propose a fundamental shift toward the industry model applied to manned orbital spaceflight that incorporates a federal capability addressing on-orbit emergencies. Not only can this capability reduce the difficulties that these differences create, but it fulfills a natural partnering role between government and private industry that is presently missing.     

Affordable housing in New Urbanist Communities: A survey of developers

Abstract

Despite the unequivocal goal of income diversity as expressed in the Charter of the Congress for the New Urbanism, one of the more significant challenges facing the movement has been the creation of socially diverse neighborhoods, especially ones that include a mix of incomes. Although recent reports show that most New Urbanist developments are being built for upper‐middle‐class residents, some projects have managed to support income diversity. This article takes a closer look at those projects, reporting on the results of a nationwide survey of New Urbanist developers.

We found that many developers have used complex, creative schemes to make affordable housing possible within the New Urbanist context. Developers created affordable opportunities by combining available government programs, partnerships with nonprofits, and innovative design solutions. These efforts have provided important sources of affordable housing within the context of walkable communities—serving as examples that should be emulated by future developers.     

National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986: Using Tax Revenues to Assure Vaccine Availability

The National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 was funded with an earmarked tax in an attempt to prevent a perceived crisis that was developing in the United States regarding the availability and affordability of vaccines for life-threatening childhood illnesses. The federal government felt compelled to intervene in a perceived failure of the private marketplace. In short, the inability of several pharmaceutical firms to obtain liability insurance due to high damage awards forced them to leave the marketplace or self-insure. This article details the history of the vaccine tax policy issues and updates the experiences of the financing mechanism. As the federal government attempts to broaden its role in the health care delivery system, the possibility of similar interventions exist.     

Disconnect in the Hollow State: The Pivotal Role of Organizational Capacity in Community-Based Development Organizations

Partnerships between government and community-based development organizations (CBDOs) have proven to be central to long-term neighborhood revitalization in many settings. These successes, coupled with the political popularity of community-driven projects, have stimulated further reliance on this approach. Unfortunately, scant research has been done on the organizational capacity of local community-based development organizations to administer these projects. It may be that many of them do not have the capacity to do the job.
This article examines elements of organizational capacity in CBDOs developing affordable housing in a United States-Mexico border community. Evidence of capacity was limited, raising serious questions about the implementation of public policy in the hollow state. In their haste to contract with not-for-profits to create affordable housing, government officials may not be considering the serious possibility that CBDOs do not have the capacity to deliver services or effectively administer projects over time.     

Public Opinion on Federalism in the United States and Canada in 2002: The Aftermath of Terrorism

This research reports on a public-opinion survey on intergovernmentaland border issues in Canada and the United States conductedin mid-April 2002. In the United States, there was an upsurgein public support for the federal government in 2002 over 2001,and a slight decline in public evaluations of state and localgovernments. Increased support for the federal government wasespecially notable among whites, Republicans, and respondentswith post-undergraduate education-groups that previously registeredlow support for the federal government. Canadians reported lesssatisfaction with all governments in their federal system, lowersupport for their federal government, and much more regionaland partisan division over intergovernmental issues. On internationalborder issues, Americans and Canadians generally agreed thata common border-security policy would be a good idea, thoughCanadians were slightly more likely than Americans to preferease of cross-border trade over improved border security.