Housing Subsidies and Housing Policy


Book Description




Housing Policy in the United States


Book Description

The fourth edition of Housing Policy in the United States refreshes its classic, foundational coverage of the field with new data, analysis, and comparative focus. This landmark volume offers a broad overview that synthesizes a wide range of material to highlight the significant problems, concepts, programs and debates that all defi ne the aims, challenges, and milestones within and involving housing policy. Expanded discussion in this edition centers on state and local activity to produce and preserve affordable housing, the impact and the implications of reduced fi nancial incentives for homeowners. Other features of this new edition include: • Analysis of the impact of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 on housing- related tax expenditures; • Review of the state of fair housing programs in the wake of the Trump Administration’s rollback of several key programs and policies; • Cross- examination of U.S. housing policy and conditions in an international context. Featuring the latest available data on housing patterns and conditions, this is an excellent companion for graduate and advanced undergraduate courses in urban studies, urban planning, sociology and social policy, and housing policy.




The Affordable City


Book Description

From Los Angeles to Boston and Chicago to Miami, US cities are struggling to address the twin crises of high housing costs and household instability. Debates over the appropriate course of action have been defined by two poles: building more housing or enacting stronger tenant protections. These options are often treated as mutually exclusive, with support for one implying opposition to the other. Shane Phillips believes that effectively tackling the housing crisis requires that cities support both tenant protections and housing abundance. He offers readers more than 50 policy recommendations, beginning with a set of principles and general recommendations that should apply to all housing policy. The remaining recommendations are organized by what he calls the Three S’s of Supply, Stability, and Subsidy. Phillips makes a moral and economic case for why each is essential and recommendations for making them work together. There is no single solution to the housing crisis—it will require a comprehensive approach backed by strong, diverse coalitions. The Affordable City is an essential tool for professionals and advocates working to improve affordability and increase community resilience through local action.




Housing Subsidies and Housing Policies


Book Description







Shelter and Subsidies


Book Description

Discusses why Americans with low incomes are not the sole or even the primary beneficiaries of the federal housing programs, and estimates the value of benefits received from homeownership and .entalassistance, subsidize loans from Farmers Home Administration.




New Deal Ruins


Book Description

Public housing was an integral part of the New Deal, as the federal government funded public works to generate economic activity and offer material support to families made destitute by the Great Depression, and it remained a major element of urban policy in subsequent decades. As chronicled in New Deal Ruins, however, housing policy since the 1990s has turned to the demolition of public housing in favor of subsidized units in mixed-income communities and the use of tenant-based vouchers rather than direct housing subsidies. While these policies, articulated in the HOPE VI program begun in 1992, aimed to improve the social and economic conditions of urban residents, the results have been quite different. As Edward G. Goetz shows, hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced and there has been a loss of more than 250,000 permanently affordable residential units. Goetz offers a critical analysis of the nationwide effort to dismantle public housing by focusing on the impact of policy changes in three cities: Atlanta, Chicago, and New Orleans.Goetz shows how this transformation is related to pressures of gentrification and the enduring influence of race in American cities. African Americans have been disproportionately affected by this policy shift; it is the cities in which public housing is most closely identified with minorities that have been the most aggressive in removing units. Goetz convincingly refutes myths about the supposed failure of public housing. He offers an evidence-based argument for renewed investment in public housing to accompany housing choice initiatives as a model for innovative and equitable housing policy.




Means-Tested Transfer Programs in the United States


Book Description

Few United States government programs are as controversial as those designed to aid the poor. From tax credits to medical assistance, aid to needy families is surrounded by debate—on what benefits should be offered, what forms they should take, and how they should be administered. The past few decades, in fact, have seen this debate lead to broad transformations of aid programs themselves, with Aid to Families with Dependent Children replaced by Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, the Earned Income Tax Credit growing from a minor program to one of the most important for low-income families, and Medicaid greatly expanding its eligibility. This volume provides a remarkable overview of how such programs actually work, offering an impressive wealth of information on the nation's nine largest "means-tested" programs—that is, those in which some test of income forms the basis for participation. For each program, contributors describe origins and goals, summarize policy histories and current rules, and discuss the recipient's characteristics as well as the different types of benefits they receive. Each chapter then provides an overview of scholarly research on each program, bringing together the results of the field's most rigorous statistical examinations. The result is a fascinating portrayal of the evolution and current state of means-tested programs, one that charts a number of shifts in emphasis—the decline of cash assistance, for instance, and the increasing emphasis on work. This exemplary portrait of the nation's safety net will be an invaluable reference for anyone interested in American social policy.







Urban Housing Policy


Book Description

For as long as statistics record, housing conditions in the United States have been improving. Housing that only the rich once enjoyed is commonplace today; by today's standards, most of the population was ill-housed at the turn of the century. Amidst this rise, however, inadequate living accommodations for a portion of the population have stubbornly persisted. Many families endure housing deprivations that are severe, even with respect to the norms of earlier years.Development of housing policy requires a blending of technical data, theory, and political and ethical considerations. This study is organized, therefore, around a planning framework. Housing needs and objectives are specified; housing resources are identified; theories of the problem are explored; alternative strategies are reviewed; and one of several possible packages of programs is elaborated in detail. Particular emphasis is placed throughout on the multiplicity of housing and non-housing goals and programs, and on the variety of client groups, which must be taken into consideration in trying to evolve an appropriate role for the public sector in this area of social concern.Specifically, this work begins with a quick sketch of Baltimore and an examination of local problems and policies. This is followed by a description of the dimensions of housing needs. Another chapter studies the low-income market empirically from the perspective of the person whom poor families rely on for housing services - the landlord. An investigation on several theories of slums, decay, and housing abandonment is discussed, and the authors formulate a composite theory that serves as a foundation for policy decisions. The final set of chapters explores in greater detail technical aspects of the proposals contained in the text, and the concluding chapter investigates their political feasibility.