我国公共租赁房可持续发展的法律监管研究——以重庆市为例

近年来,随着对民生问题的关注,住房保障问题也成了我国政治、经济和法律关注的焦点。廉租房和经济适用房的大力建设,城市低收入人群的住房问题在一定程度上有所改观。但是商品房的价格日渐走高,＂夹心层＂的住房保障问题也日益突出,外来务工人员的住房条件也亟须改善。大力发展公共租赁住房的建设,建立健全公共租赁住房制度的法律监管,是我国城市化进程中的必然需求。     

外资征收与环境保护——不补偿环境征收之合法性刍议

由于环境保护关系到人类整体和国际社会共同利益,在外资征收的立法与实践中环境保护和外资保护应予一体化考虑,但现状却反映出外资私益优先于环境公益的倾向。从建立国际经济新秩序的角度看,为使发展中国家不致因环保因素付出不必要的代价,环境征收不应具有补偿性。而且,不补偿环境征收合法性根植于污染者付费原则、预防原则、治安权例外以及国际环境法义务优先原则。     

坚持科学发展 实现住有所居——解决城镇居民住房问题的政府视角

“住有所居”是保障和改善民生的重要目标,也是政府肩负的执政责任。它要求各级政府必须明确相应职责和角色定位,着力保障和改善民生,促进社会公平正义,走出产业定位、征地拆迁、房价调控、市场失效、住房保障、住房消费、环境保护等方面的误区,探寻出一条解决城镇居民住房问题的科学发展之路。     

‘Policies that Fail – Words that Succeed’: The Politics of Accessible Housing in Australia

This paper seeks to contribute to the debate over the efficacy of voluntary agreements versus regulation, and uses a study of the Livable Housing Design initiative to deliver voluntarily new‐built accessible housing in Australia. We first probe why regulation has become such a significant component of government policy making, and then ask why political campaigns focus on this issue as a strategy for reform. We refer to research by disability activists, which claims that the voluntary approach has failed and regulation is necessary. Amongst our conclusions are: (1) that the disjuncture between policy rhetoric and outcome can be attributed to the power of lobbyists, reliance on the private market to address inequality, and antipathy to regulatory enforcement; and (2) that there is a need for greater interrogation of the language deployed in policy texts to identify whether they are crafted to maintain the government's legitimacy or to deliver purposeful change.     

Walking Away From The Wire: Housing Mobility and Neighborhood Opportunity in Baltimore

Families using the Housing Choice Voucher Program rarely experience large gains in neighborhood or school quality when compared with unassisted poor renters. Research on housing mobility programs has reached mixed conclusions about whether vouchers can improve neighborhood and school quality, especially in the long term. We revisit these findings using new data from the partial remedy to the Thompson v. HUD desegregation case in Baltimore, known as the Baltimore Housing Mobility Program (BHMP). Through targeted vouchers, intensive counseling and innovative policy features, the BHMP helped families move to low-poverty, nonsegregated neighborhoods with higher performing school districts. We examine residential outcomes for the first 1,800 families that moved through the program for a period of up to 9 years. We find that BHMP families moved to more integrated and affluent neighborhoods, in school districts with more qualified teachers and fewer poor students—and most families stayed in these neighborhoods beyond their initial lease-up period. Eventually, a small proportion of families moved to neighborhoods that are less white, but still significantly less poor and less segregated than their original communities. We interpret these findings in light of past mobility programs and discuss policy implications for the Housing Choice Voucher Program.     

The Characteristics and Unmet Housing Program Needs of Disabled HUD-Assisted Households

The mismatch between the housing needs of persons with a disability and the housing programs designed to accommodate those needs is an important housing policy concern. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) sponsors several programs designed to improve the housing conditions of persons with a disability, but we know little about the characteristics of persons with a disability, among those receiving federal housing assistance, or the degree to which persons with a disability are served by HUD-sponsored housing programs that are designed to meet the needs of persons with a disability. Our study relies on administrative data from HUD and the U.S. Census Bureau to address this research gap. We find that many persons with a disability are served by HUD-sponsored programs that are not designated for persons with a disability, even when disability accommodations have been requested, and a similarly large share of persons with a disability live in potentially eligible low-income households that do not receive HUD assistance.     

Temporary Loan Limits as a Natural Experiment in Federal Housing Administration Insurance

The Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 dramatically but temporarily increased the mortgage loan amount eligible for insurance through the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). We use the implementation and expiration of these loan limits as a source of exogenous variation in the availability of FHA insurance to measure the impact on the overall mortgage market and conventional lending. We find that the introduction of higher loan limits increased the number of loan originations, but that the expiration of those loan limits roughly 6 years later did not significantly decrease affected loan originations. The substitution between loan products and small net impact on the overall mortgage market when the ESA loan limits expired may be explained by the return of a stronger conventional lending industry than existed during the housing crisis.     

Fiscal Austerity and Rental Housing Policy in the United States and United Kingdom, 2010–2016

After the 2008 global financial crisis, both the United States and the United Kingdom introduced austerity policies targeted at particular elements of their national budgets. The purpose of this article is to compare the nature of this retrenchment; the similarities and differences in how it was implemented; and its initial impacts on one of the expenditure areas particularly affected: affordable rental housing programs and housing support for low-income households. Using a wide range of data sources, we find evidence of political and fiscal policy analogies in the timing and forms of the initial policy choices and how these were modified in the face of economic and political pressures. There are considerable similarities both in the instruments used to reduce housing expenditures and in the early impacts on support mechanisms and recipients. However, we find different histories and trajectories of support between the two countries that suggest that the longer term differences in outcomes may be more important.     

新加坡的公共住宅政策及其借鉴

当今,世界各国政府几乎无一例外地都在不同程度上为中低收入阶层解决住房问题提供帮助。但是,真正制定出行之有效的住房政策来解决中低收入阶层住房问题的国家却是不多。几十年来,新加坡政府解决住房问题卓有成效。它的公共住房发展计划与政策,对于我国住房体制改革具有重要的借鉴意义 。     

Points for Place: Can State Governments Shape Siting Patterns of Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Developments?

There is considerable controversy about the allocation of Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC). Some charge that credits are disproportionately allocated to developments in poor, minority neighborhoods without additional investments and thereby reinforcing patterns of poverty concentration and racial segregation. We examine whether Qualified Allocation Plans, which outline the selection criteria states use when awarding credits, can serve as an effective tool for directing credits to higher opportunity neighborhoods (or neighborhoods that offer a rich set of resources, such as high-performing schools and access to jobs) for states wishing to do so. To answer this question, we study changes in the location criteria outlined in allocation plans for 20 different states across the country between 2002 and 2010, and observe the degree to which those modifications are associated with changes in the poverty rates and racial composition of the neighborhoods where developments awarded tax credits are located. We find evidence that changes to allocation plans that prioritize higher opportunity neighborhoods are associated with increases in the share of credits allocated to housing units in lower poverty neighborhoods and reductions in the share allocated to those in predominantly minority neighborhoods. This analysis provides the first source of empirical evidence that state allocation plans can shape LIHTC siting patterns.