Comment on Jill Khadduri's “should the housing voucher program become a state‐administered block grant?” A housing voucher block grant is a bad idea

Abstract

Khadduri argues for a well‐designed voucher block grant, phased in over several years. But proposals under consideration are more likely to undermine the effectiveness of vouchers than address their limitations. The most important advantage of housing vouchers is that they give recipients the freedom to choose the kind of housing and the location that best meet their needs. Although the current program is not living up to its potential, strategies for making it work better can be implemented without a block grant. Supporters of block grants claim welfare reform as a model, but none of the factors that contributed to declining caseloads under Temporary Assistance to Needy Families apply to housing. The single biggest problem with the housing voucher program is that federal spending for affordable housing is woefully inadequate. Instead of addressing this issue, a block grant would make housing hardship a state rather than a federal problem.     

Do impact fees raise the price of existing housing?

Abstract

This article uses 1991–2000 data on single‐family housing sales from King County, WA, to provide new evidence relating to the effects of impact fees on housing prices. The hedonic regression method is used to examine the effects of these fees on existing housing as well as their differential effects on price as determined by housing quality.

Impact fees raise existing home prices by about 83 percent of the amount of the fee. The increase is 103 percent for high‐quality homes and is not statistically significant for low‐quality homes. The owners of high‐quality homes realize capital gains from impact fees. However, such fees do not raise the price of low‐quality homes. To the extent that low‐quality housing is more likely to be owned by low‐ and moderate‐income households, which are often composed of racial and ethnic minorities, this finding has significant policy implications for the supporters of impact fees.     

Why Low-Income Households Become Unstably Housed: Evidence From the Panel Study of Income Dynamics

ABSTRACT

Because of a severe shortage of affordable housing in the United States, an increasing number of low-income households suffer from housing instability. However, little evidence exists as to why they experienced housing instability, although they were stably housed at other times. By applying hybrid models to the Panel Study of Income Dynamics data, this study estimates the effects of potential household-level predictors on the likelihood of experiencing housing instability. The results show that changes in family employment structure, job insecurity, automobile ownership, and the number of adult family members within a household correlate with housing instability after controlling for changes in household income and housing costs. Moreover, I find that households with children are particularly vulnerable to housing instability. These results contribute to identifying valid household-level predictors of housing instability and developing preventive policy interventions that help unsubsidized low-income households achieve housing stability.     

Why Are Some States More Generous in Offering R&D Tax Credits than Others? An Empirical Answer

This article examines political cost factors that affect a state's propensity to adopt a corporate income tax credit to encourage research and development (R&D) activities in the United States. Assuming state elected officials are vote-maximizers, this article hypothesizes that politicians' consideration of potential revenue losses and influence from organized interests are critical in a state's decision to provide a R&D tax credit. To test the hypothesis, two statistical models are specified. With a dichotomous dependent variable of whether or not a R&D tax credit is offered, a Logit regression model is utilized. For the interval level dependent variable of effective R&D credit rates, this article specifies a Tobit model. The results show that politicians' concerns about revenue losses loom much larger than private organized interests.     

A Balanced Budget with Side Effects—A Case Study of Implementation of a Hospital Cost Savings Program in Sweden

This study examines the implementation of a hospital cost savings program in a Swedish county hospital to understand how and why a downsizing intervention works and what outcomes it produces. Data were gathered from interviews and documents. Substantial differences were found among the healthcare professionals’ perceptions of the downsizing process. These diverse perceptions likely limited the scope of staffs’ participation and innovations of new savings strategies. Our findings stress the need for impact analyses addressing both intended aims and unintended side effects. Full attention should be paid to communication processes required to establish a trustful and committed change climate.     

Social housing under the Workers’ Party government: an analysis of the private sector in Brazil

This article examines the patterns of government intervention in social housing in Brazil to analyse the role of the private sector in the elaboration and implementation of social housing policies during the Workers’ Party government. It draws on case study research, and I examine areas which impact on the way social housing has been implemented since 2003 to study the concentration of decision power the private construction sector has on social housing policymaking, which sets the tone of government intervention on social housing. I argue this was part of the Workers’ Party’s approach to neoliberal policies in a more moderated style, a type of intervention repeated on numerous occasions under previous administrations. This article concludes by noting the prominent role of the private sector in social housing developments.     

Japan's peacekeeping policy: Strategic calculation or internalization of an international norm?

Abstract

With the Gulf War as a trigger, Japan began to make a humanitarian contribution by dispatching the Self Defense Forces to United Nations peacekeeping operations. Given Japan's strong hesitation for participation in the past, Japan's peacekeeping policy presents an intriguing challenge to examine the factors for a preference change and sustained compliance. By investigating Japan's peacekeeping policies towards East Timor and Haiti, this article examines how Japan's behavior and preferences were influenced by either internalized norms or cost/benefit calculations. While norm-driven behavior is considered to be incompatible with strategic calculated behavior, the article demonstrates that these two factors can co-exist.     

Paying to Be Punished: A Statutory Analysis of Sex Offender Registration Fees

Over the last 20 years, sex offender policies, specifically in terms of community corrections, have increased in scope. One of the most controversial and pervasive sex offender policies is that of registration. In response to the consumption of already limited resources, jurisdictions have imposed increasingly higher community supervision fees onto the offenders, requiring them to pay for their own re-entry. However, to date no research study has examined the statutory language associated with registration fees collected post release from formal community sanctions. Using a statutory analysis within the United States, this research finds and quantifies the imposition of a registration fee on offenders who are legally compelled to pay these registration costs, regardless of whether they are still currently under community supervision. Results show that more than half of U.S. states (n?=?28) incorporate statutory language authorizing registration fees, ranging anywhere from $5 per registration to up to $250 per year. These findings, as well as suggestions for future research and policy recommendations, are discussed.     

Housing Affordability and Health: Evidence From New York City

It is generally understood that households make tradeoffs between housing costs and other living expenses. In this article, we examine the relationship between health-related outcomes and housing-induced financial burdens for renters in one of the most expensive cities in the world, New York, New York. Drawing from the Housing Vacancy Survey for 2011, a representative survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau of more than 16,000 households in New York City, we estimate the effect of housing cost burden on the overall health of renters and the extent to which they have postponed various types of medical services for financial reasons. Results show that higher out-of-pocket rent burdens are associated with worse self-reported health conditions and a higher likelihood to postpone medical services for financial reasons. This relationship is particularly strong for those households with severe rent burdens. In addition, housing cost burden is equally or more important than other physical housing characteristics in explaining the variation in self-reported general health status and health care postponement. These findings are robust across specifications with different degrees of household, unit/building, and neighborhood controls, and among longstanding and newer renters. Our findings point to the importance of considering health-related outcomes when designing housing policies, and that housing subsidies should target both renters' out-of-pocket costs and place-based repair and maintenance.     

Market Rental Housing Affordability and Rapid Transit Catchments: Application of a New Measure in Canada

Abstract

In high-income cities, the availability of affordable rental housing in locations served by fast and frequent public transportation enables low-income households access to more opportunities, including jobs, without the costs of owning and operating automobiles. This study operationalizes a residual income approach to identify market rental housing that is affordable to two household configurations (couples with children and couples without children) in two categories below the median income. The study is carried out on Canada’s least and most expensive major metropolitan housing markets, Montreal and Vancouver. In addition to spatially disaggregating the results into inside and outside rapid transit walking catchments, the results are spatially disaggregated into four zones (Urban Core, Inner City, Inner Suburbs, and Outer Suburbs). Implications of the uneven distribution of affordable rentals with respect to transit access are discussed.