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.     

Housing Programs Fail to Deliver on Neighborhood Quality,Reexamined

This article revisits the relative performance of housing programs in terms of delivering on neighborhood quality. Newman and Schnare examined this issue in 1997, and this article updates their work more than a decade later. Both efforts examine the neighborhood characteristics surrounding assisted rental housing and assess the direction of assisted-housing policy. The analysis is performed by exploring census data at the tract level for the tenant-based Housing Choice Voucher program plus a set of project-based programs, including public housing, the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program, and other HUD multifamily programs. We conclude that Newman and Schnare remain correct that rental housing assistance does little to improve the quality of the recipients' neighborhoods relative to those of welfare households and can make things worse. However, things have improved. The Housing Choice Voucher and Low-Income Housing Tax Credit programs have grown in importance over the intervening years and have improved their performance by moving more households into low-poverty, less distressed areas. Importantly, these active programs for assisted housing are beginning to find ways to overcome the barriers preventing entry into the suburbs, although more needs to be done.     

High Costs and Segregation in Subsidized Housing Policy

This article examines the public policies determining the distribution of subsidized housing in the Twin Cities metropolitan area of Minnesota, the resulting distribution of subsidized housing, and the comparative costs associated with building in the region's central cities or in suburbs. The analysis concludes that current policies are clearly not meeting the region's responsibility to affirmatively further fair housing. The metropolitan area abandoned its role as a national leader in this area decades ago. The result is an affordable housing system that concentrates subsidized housing in the region's poorest and most segregated neighborhoods. This increases the concentration of poverty in the two central cities, in the region's most racially diverse neighborhoods, and in the attendance areas of predominantly nonwhite schools. In the long run, this hurts the regional economy and exacerbates the racial gaps in income, employment, and student performance that plague the Twin Cities.     

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.     

夫妻房产约定的法律适用——基于我国约定夫妻财产制的考察

关于房产归属,夫妻之间可采夫妻财产约定形式加以变动,也可以订立赠与合同。前者与夫妻身份密切相关,具有附随身份的特性;后者内容及效力均与夫妻身份无关。在适用法律上,前者适用身份法,约定直接产生物权变动效力,即使未变更登记也无任意撤销权行使余地;后者适用财产法,未变更登记之前赠与方可以撤销赠与。夫妻之间订立的内容不明确的房产变动协议,其性质应推定为夫妻财产约定。     

建立中国住房储蓄银行的构想

当今世界,居民的住房问题是各国需要很好解决的头等大事。而凡是成功解决住宅问题的国家,基本上都离不开住房金融体系的支持。作为住房金融体系重要组成部分的住房储蓄银行,对于解决居民住房问题发挥了十分重要的作用。本文在考察和借鉴德国住房储蓄银行成功经验的基础上,对建立中国住房储蓄银行的有关问题进行了探讨。     

城市房屋拆迁的合法性及补偿制度研究

城市房屋拆迁实质上是以国家权力为依托，被拆迁人和政府之间强制缔约的经济行为。由于我国法律规定不完善，城市房屋拆迁的前提即对公共利益的评判标准模糊。实际操作中，房屋拆迁的补偿原则、范围、标准以及补偿程序等一度引起人们的质疑和不满。当务之急是从城市房屋拆迁的现状和法学分析入手，通过对实践中房屋拆迁合法性的质疑，结合在城市房屋拆迁的实践中出现的问题力求对相关法律制度的完善提出立法建议。     

论我国房屋征收的社会稳定风险评估机制的功能定位及其架构——一个风险规制的行政法学视角

我国房屋征收领域已经存在系统的社会风险。作为政治系统对法律系统的环境影响,重塑征收的合法性应注意房屋征收法制中社会稳定风险评估机制的功能定位;凝聚价值共识、扩大公众参与、注重反思理性应当成为房屋征收社会稳定评估机制的架构基础。     

人口年龄结构如何影响住房财富效应？——基于家庭微观视角的分析

人口年龄结构变动与高房价均为我国当前经济社会的重要特征，研究人口年龄结构对住房财富效应的影响对于房价调控、释放居民消费潜力具有较大的现实意义。基于中国家庭追踪调查(CFPS)数据，实证检验人口年龄结构对住房财富效应的影响，结果发现：老年抚养比和幼年抚养比升高显著增强了住房财富效应，且幼年抚养比升高对住房财富效应的影响更大；进一步，老年抚养比和幼年抚养比对拥有大产权房产家庭和低房价收入比家庭的住房财富效应有显著正向影响，但对拥有小产权房产家庭和高房价收入比家庭的影响不显著；并且，幼年抚养比对家庭住房财富效应的正向影响在高房价地区更为显著，老年抚养比对其的正向影响则在低房价区域更显著。     

Development of an Index of Subsidized Housing Availability and its Relationship to Housing Insecurity

Housing insecurity is a known threat to child health understanding predictors of housing insecurity can help inform policies to protect the health of young children in low-income households. This study sheds light on the relationship between housing insecurity and availability of housing that is affordable to low-income households.

We developed a county-level index of availability of subsidized housing needed to meet the demand of low-income households. Our results estimate that if subsidized units are made available to an additional 5% of the eligible population, the odds of overcrowding decrease by 26% and the odds of families making multiple moves decrease by 31%. Both of these are known predictors of poor child health outcomes. Thus, these results suggest that state and federal investments in expanding the stock of subsidized housing could reduce housing insecurity and thereby also improve the health and well-being of young children, including their families' food security status.