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.     

Do the Joneses Help You Keep Up? A Natural Experiment in Exposure to Nonpoor Neighbors

This study capitalizes on a natural experiment in Montgomery County, Maryland, where low-income applicant families are randomly assigned to public housing that is either (a) clustered within seven public housing developments or (b) scattered into market-rate subdivisions via the county's inclusionary zoning policy. Through a survey of 453 public housing residents, we find that adults who lived in scattered public housing reported a lower proportion of low-socioeconomic status (SES) social ties generally and a lower proportion of low-SES neighbors specifically in their social networks. They also counted more high-SES individuals in their social networks, and this effect was related to the amount of time they lived in the neighborhood. Living in scattered public housing had no adverse effect on feelings of neighborhood belonging or satisfaction. The socioeconomic composition of respondents' social networks was associated with two health outcomes for respondents (smoking and depression) and modestly associated with respondents' household income.     

Gated communities and the poor in Santiago,Chile: Functional and symbolic integration in a context of aggressive capitalist colonization of lower‐class areas

Abstract

In Santiago, Chile, the number of gated communities has increased significantly during the past few years. Although these communities are aimed at the elite, they are often located on the fringes of low‐income neighborhoods and thus change traditional segregation patterns in the city.

In many cases, gated housing communities for the upper classes are accompanied by nonresidential development, such as shopping centers and office complexes, which bring jobs into the neighborhood. We analyze case studies of lower‐class neighborhoods located near upper‐class gated communities to study the effect on the poor. We find that the spatial dispersion of real estate developments for the elite promotes some forms of social integration and provides advantages to poorer residents by bringing jobs into the neighborhood, triggering improved public services, and even sparking a renewed sense of pride among lower‐class residents.     

Race and residential accessibility to shopping and services

Abstract

Predominantly black, upper‐income census tracts in the 10‐county Atlanta region have lower accessibility to certain personal consumption opportunities than comparable white tracts do; black residents are more likely to have to leave their neighborhoods to eat out (other than at fast food restaurants), grocery shop, or see movies. Accessibility is calculated as a function of travel time to providers of local goods and services. Such accessibility is a desirable attribute and contributes to neighborhood quality and housing value.

We find that differences in residential accessibility to shopping and services by race are not explained by income differences, but could result from real differences in consumption patterns, though these are more likely due to demographic differences between black and white populations of comparable incomes; inaccurate information on neighborhood attributes and personal consumption preferences; or racially biased business decisions. We conclude by summarizing the policy implications of our findings.     

HOPE VI–a viable strategy for improving neighborhood conditions and resident self-sufficiency? The case of Maverick Gardens in Boston

This article considers whether the HOPE VI program has achieved two of its key goals: improving neighborhood conditions and increasing resident self-sufficiency. Findings from the Maverick Gardens HOPE VI program in Boston, Massachusetts are presented and discussed in the context of other research on HOPE VI and other relocation initiatives.

Evidence from the Boston site affirms that the combination of relocation and redevelopment can lead to dramatic improvements in neighborhood quality for many – but not all – residents. Self-sufficiency outcomes, on the other hand, were not achieved: employment did not change, job networks were not expanded to new neighbors, and some residents experienced a decline in economic stability as a result of the program. Why HOPE VI has failed to improve neighborhood conditions for all residents and why it has failed to impact resident self-sufficiency is discussed, and how program goals and strategies might be adjusted to make it more effective is considered.     

Citizenship practices of non-citizens in Slovenia: ‘you cannot fight the system alone’

In the period of state formation (1991–1992), the Slovene Ministry of the Interior erased, that is, excluded from legal status, those immigrants from other parts of the former Yugoslavia who did not become Slovene citizens when citizenship was available under initial simplified criteria. Compared with the processes of independence in Estonia and elsewhere, exclusion in the form of erasure from the register of permanent residents in Slovenia extended beyond the creation of foreigners within the country (i.e. foreign citizens with the right to remain and support themselves); this exclusion created outlaws, legal freaks (Arendt) or homines sacres (Agamben) – bare human beings who were expunged from society and deprived of all former rights and roles. This article discusses the citizenship practices of the victims of the erasure and interprets these practices as emancipation processes: the erased used grass roots and legal means to attempt to obtain the right to dignity, the right to stay and the right to compensation for their ‘lost years’. The effects of their struggle went beyond matters of mere utility: by publicly defining themselves as ‘the erased’ and acting upon injustice; the erased challenged the boundaries of citizenship in terms of membership and content.     

Comment on Sandra J. Newman and Ann B. Schnare's “'… And a suitable living environment’: The failure of housing programs to deliver on neighborhood quality”

Abstract

Newman and Schnare provide a useful portrait of where housing assistance ends up geographically. The evidence that certificate and voucher holders are less likely than public housing residents to live in the poorest neighborhoods is encouraging, as well as important for policy decisions. Unresolved in the article, and unresolvable with the data, as the authors themselves note, is the matter of how neighborhood quality is affected by housing assistance. The least popular housing developments have long been relegated to neighborhoods of least political resistance, a fact that constrains most local efforts to deconcentrate poverty. Futhermore, through the tax code, America spends about three times as much on housing assistance for middle‐ and upper‐income households as it does on assistance to low‐ and moderate‐income households. Thus far, we have not applied “fair share” principles either to the location of housing assistance or to its allocation across the income spectrum.     

Ticking all the boxes? A comparative study of social sorting and affective polarization

This study explores whether, in societies around the world, affective polarization – or animosity between citizens based on their political allegiance – is stronger if political divisions align with non-political ones. Such ‘social sorting’ has earlier been established to foster affective polarization in the United States. In this study, I argue that the underlying mechanism travels across the globe. I then present two complementary studies which confirm this hypothesis. First, I employ CSES data to predict the level of affective polarization by social sorting at 119 elections in 40 countries, showing that greater alignment of partisan divisions with non-political divisions in a society (along the lines of income, education, religion and region) is associated with stronger dislike towards political outgroups. Second, using Dutch panel data, I show that individuals who fit the socio-demographic ‘profile’ of their party better tend to be more affectively polarized. This has important implications for our understanding of affective polarization.     

Why Place Really Matters: A Qualitative Approach to Housing Preferences and Neighborhood Effects

The idea that a person’s neighborhood or zip code can predict his or her life outcomes has motivated a host of housing policies aimed at redressing racial segregation and breaking up areas of concentrated poverty. This article critically examines underlying assumptions about high-poverty neighborhoods that motivate those policies. Using ethnographic methods, I present the location preferences of residents living in a low-income neighborhood in Columbus, Ohio, and show the ways in which their perceptions of their neighborhood run counter to common portrayals. This analysis provides clues as to why the underlying logic of dispersal and mobility may be flawed. I conclude that place matters very much to people living in this neighborhood, just not in the way commonly implied by dispersal and mobility policy advocates. The implication is that stability, rather than mobility, ought to be the focus of more housing discussions.     

Improving neighborhood quality: A hierarchy of needs

Abstract

A sample of 306 residents of New Jersey stratified by type of neighborhood was gathered in order to measure the association of residents’ ratings of neighborhood quality with neighborhood attributes and residents’ characteristics. Poor neighborhood quality was strongly associated with crime/vandalism and physical decay, as well as with mistrust of authority, negative emotions, pessimism, and a lack of sense of mastery of the environment.

The policy implications of these findings are important. First, improving schools, controlling locally unwanted land uses, and improving other neighborhood conditions will help improve neighborhood quality only if crime and blight are controlled. Second, many residents of poor and fair quality neighborhoods mistrust authority, including the local officials and potential investors who will spearhead neighborhood redevelopment. This destructive form of mistrust must be addressed.     

An investigative research on the status of urban residents' psychological security

The objective of this study was to investigate the status of the psychological security of 224 urban residents by using a self‐made questionnaire. The results show that the overall psychological security of urban residents is in the medium–low level. There are significant differences among residents with education background or with household per capita monthly income (F = 4.192, F = 4.545, p < 0.05). People with high psychological security scores are highly educated or come from families with high per capita monthly income. In regards to the factors of common sense of security, the results show significant differences (F = 4.98, p < 0.01) among people with different educational background and people with bachelor's degrees or above scores higher than less‐educated people (from high school or community college). In regards to the factors of certainty feeling, there are significant variations among people with genders and economic background (F = 11.28, F = 7.75, p < 0.01), males higher than females, while people with per capita monthly income of more than 2000 RMB feel more certainty than those with less than 2000 RMB. On the sense of calmness, factors such as education and family per capita income significantly affected scores (F = 4.67, p < 0.05, F = 5.20, p < 0.01). People with high school degree feel less calm than those with college degree or above; individuals with per capita monthly income of 2000 RMB feel less calm than those with income higher than 2000 RMB of above. For another dimension, the sense of relaxation, there is a significant difference among different age groups (F = 8.92, p < 0.001, groups below 40 scoring higher than groups over 40). Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Community of Choice or Ghetto of Last Resort: Community Development and the Viability of an African American Community1

The viability of local government‐sponsored community development of poor ethnic enclaves hinges on the perceptions of residents. If residents view the enclave in which they live as their “community of choice,” they will be more likely to join with local government to coproduce community improvement. Residents who see their enclave as their community of choice tend to hold positive perceptions of neighbors and neighborhood and are less fearful of crime. Conversely, those who see the enclave where they live as a “ghetto of last resort” commonly are not meeting their economic expectations, are uneasy about race related issues, and are concerned about the desirability of their neighborhood. Government should not employ a community development strategy to preserve a “ghetto of last resort” where most residents remain because they feel they have few options. The vast majority of the residents examined here view the enclave where they live as their community of choice.     

The housing and neighborhood conditions of America's children: patterns and trends over four decades

This paper uses national and metropolitan area data from American Housing Surveys over four decades to examine the patterns and trends in the housing and neighborhood circumstances of children. Children across the income distribution have experienced dramatic improvements in the physical adequacy of their dwellings and in crowding but significant deterioration in housing affordability. Poor children are often in greatest jeopardy, with the rate of complaints about crime 25 percent higher in 2005 than in 1975, and the rate of school complaints twice as high in 2005 than 1975. Poor children also experience little payoff from residential mobility in terms of physical dwelling adequacy, crowding, affordability, or adequacy of schools, though moves are associated with fewer complaints about crime. However, it is the near poor – those between 101–200 percent of poverty – and not the poor who appear to be most affected by the tightness or looseness of the housing market.     

Comment on John T. Metzger's “planned abandonment: The neighborhood life‐cycle theory and national urban policy”

Abstract

I take strong exception to the idea that theories of neighborhood change, in and of themselves, caused the decline of inner cities. Rather, the demographic, social, and economic forces that existed in the postwar years caused some inner‐city neighborhoods to decline. The replacement of working‐class and middle‐income households by households with much lower incomes, on average, was the single biggest cause of neighborhood decline. Metzger ignores this fact as an alternative explanation for why some neighborhoods declined. It is highly implausible that my theories and those of other urban experts had such a strong impact on the public policy, building, and finance communities. Because people were responding to real conditions, it is likely that the same events would have occurred even if my model of neighborhood change had never been developed.     

Migration and social gender relations: the anthropological perspective

"This article reviews Mexican research of female migration. An analysis is made of socio-demographic and anthropological studies that cover the relations between inequality among the genders, the causes and features of migration, and the work performed by female migrants in their places of origin and destination. The paper responds to the growing interest shown in international literature [on] migration in order to determine the influence of gender identity in the motivations and features of the migration of women, as well as the consequences of spatial mobility on their social conditions and their autonomy." (SUMMARY IN ENG)     

Combining historic preservation and income class integration: A case study of the butchers hill neighborhood of Baltimore

Abstract

For the past several decades in the United States, a tension has existed between the goals of historic preservation, the provision of affordable housing, and the creation of mixed‐income neighborhoods. Historic restoration for residential uses has often been associated with gentrification and the displacement of low‐income residents. This article examines the public and private sector support system for combining historic preservation with the creation of affordable and mixed‐income housing and neighborhoods and analyzes the strategies and experiences of the Baltimore neighborhood of Butchers Hill in taking this approach to community re‐vitalization.

Using historic preservation as a catalyst for community revitalization requires a comprehensive approach to prevent displacement of low‐income residents. In Butchers Hill, the mixed‐income community that was created was an outgrowth of conflict between two community‐based organizations. The case eludes simple typologies of gentrification and indicates the need for additional study of the dynamics and benefits of mixed‐income neighborhoods.     

Linking Public Housing to Education: A Comparative Case Study of HOPE VI

This research examines the federally funded HOPE VI urban revitalization program’s influence on neighborhood public school performance. A comparative case study was conducted in two HOPE VI neighborhood public schools, one that improved significantly (Philadelphia), and one that experienced a decline (Washington DC). The analysis revealed several insights into neighborhood factors that may influence school performance: the most vulnerable residents were least likely to gain reentry, mixed income housing residents often opt out of traditional public schools, and partnerships between public housing and education officials have been historically overlooked.     

Central‐city and suburban migration patterns: Is a turnaround on the horizon?

Abstract

The huge population losses that characterized many older, larger U.S. cities during the 1960s and 1970s slowed and in some cases ceased during the 1980s and early 1990s. Periodic media reports of neighborhood turnarounds, commercial revitalization, and improvements in housing and the quality of life in selected inner‐city subareas have been taken as signs that central cities are retaining middle‐class residents and even attracting some back from the suburbs.

Analysis of metropolitan household migration patterns based on the U.S. Census Bureau's 1980 and 1990 Public Use Microdata Samples and more recent Current Population Surveys shows that the dominant trend in residential movement among most population subgroups is still toward the suburbs. While not discounting reports of central‐city neighborhood turnarounds and selective demographic revitalization, our findings imply that those improvements are limited and that a widespread back‐to‐the‐city movement is not likely in the foreseeable future.     

Segregation and Inequality in Public Goods

Many U.S. cities function without regular problems. They have well‐kept roads, sewers that never overflow, and public parks with swing sets and restrooms. Others struggle to maintain balanced budgets, fail to adequately equip or staff their police forces, and offer little assistance to residents of limited means. What explains these differences? I argue that segregation along racial lines contributes to public goods inequalities. Racially segregated cities are also politically polarized cities, making collective investment more challenging and public goods expenditures lower. I provide evidence for this argument using election data from 25 large cities and demographic data matched to city finances in more than 2,600 places. To handle the problem of endogeneity, I instrument for segregation using the number of waterways in a city. I find that segregated municipalities are more politically polarized and spend less on a wide range of public goods.     

Palpable insecurity and Sen’s comparative view of justice: anthropological considerations

Amartya Sen’s comparative approach to justice makes clear that notions of justice are shaped by human agency and experience, and both his focus on the ‘internal view’ of well-being that emphasizes suffering as a central feature of illness and his recognition that social and cultural factors shape perceived injustice are critical to this approach. However, Sen questionably depicts the contributions of anthropological research to this project as limited to ‘the sensory dimension of ill-health.’ Focusing on mental health in the context of global justice, I argue that Sen’s treatise on justice can be refined through an ethnographic method that synchronizes attention to (1) cultural knowledge and social relations in ecological settings; (2) fundamental human needs; and (3) levels of analytic specificity involving situations, categories, and events. This method integrates analysis of internal phenomenology and external constraints of political economy and ideology. To demonstrate I discuss three cases involving students and violence in Rio de Janeiro, women and witchcraft in Ghana, and historical migration and war trauma among Vietnamese immigrants in which external conditions of insecurity and inequality contributed to deteriorating mental health conditions including depression, trauma, and debilitating anxiety.