CDBG in Chicago: The Politics of Control

The first eight years of CDBG provided Chicago with almost three-quartersof a billion dollars. At the outset, the city executive, headedby Mayor Richard J. Daley, took control of CDBG planning andallocation, despite the efforts of the "machine's" opponentsto use CDBG's housing assistance and citizen participation requirementsas levers for political reform and social change. The city executivecontinued in firm control even after the Carter administrationtook office determined to reverse inherited New Federalism policies.City hall opponents found that HUD's more assertive policieson housing assistance, citizen participation, and targetinghad little effect on the executive's ability to decide how andwhere to spend CDBG funds. The dominant role of the executivealso persisted after Mayor Daley's death, although Mayor JaneByrne (elected in 1979) shifted CDBG decisionmaking from operatingcity departments to the mayor's budget office. ^*I am indebted to Sheila Macmanus for her valuable assistancein researching this article. David N. Larson, Deputy Commissionerof Planning, City of Chicago, read an early draft and made manyhelpful comments. Leonard Rubinowitz of Northwestern Universitygenerously provided me with working drafts of his chapter inDecentralizing Urban Development, cited below.     

The Organization of Child Representation Services in Child Welfare Cases: A Study of Washington State

To date no empirical studies have analyzed delivery of legal services to children and considered the implications of organizational structure for child representation practice. This study of 126 attorneys in Washington State compares children's lawyers working in solo practice, private law firms, and specialty staff attorney offices. The manner in which child representation is organized has lessons for the recruitment, training, and support of such lawyers. Staff attorney offices offer a number of advantages but rural areas with fewer cases may not be able to support such offices and the attorneys in specialty offices were less experienced and report lower incomes.     

The Nature and Determinants of Child Representation Practice in Child Welfare Cases

The representation of children in dependency cases is an emerging legal specialty. Although scholars have attempted to articulate the duties that should characterize best practices, there has been little, if any, research concerning what child representatives actually do in practice. Using a sample of 168 child representatives in Georgia and Washington State, this study examines the relative significance of various case‐related activities and how these vary as a function of case‐ and attorney‐level characteristics. Based on the findings, we conclude that attorney activities are influenced by a combination of case and attorney characteristics, suggesting several distinct avenues for improving legal representation for children in dependency cases.     

The Evolution of Low‐Income Housing Policy, 1949 to 1999

Abstract

The evolution of low‐income housing policy during the past 50 years can be divided roughly into two segments: the first running from 1949 to the 1973 Nixon moratorium on subsidized production programs and the second from 1973 to the present, marked by a diminished federal leadership role and an increased state and local role. After tracing the rise of the federal leadership role represented in the Housing Acts of 1949 and 1968, this article focuses on the development of three important policy instruments that mark the devolution of housing policy: housing vouchers, housing block grants, and the Low‐Income Housing Tax Credit.

The three‐pronged strategy of vouchers, block grants, and tax credits has achieved reasonably good results and attracted an unusual degree of political consensus. A steady expansion of all three offers the most promising path to the “realization as soon as feasible” of the national housing goal.