Browsing by Subject "Housing policy"
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Item Alternative system approach for affordable housing on the US-Mexico border(1994-05) Goldsmith, Charles O.The need for new or, in many cases, more adequate housing in Mexico has developed and continues to grow according to a variety of influences. These include economic and social pressures, natural growth patterns, migratory realignments in the population, and crisis related needs and movements. Like most Latin American countries, and the developing world in general, Mexico has been experiencing a massive demographic shift from rural to urban, often from south to north, and from a smaller older population to a larger younger one.Item An analysis of the allocation of the low-income housing tax credit(Texas Tech University, 1997-12) Hopkins, John D.Since the passage of the National Housing Act in 1937, Congress has been dedicated to increasing the supply of "affordable" low-income housing. At different points in time over the past 57 years, public housing programs as well as various demandand supply-side incentives for private investment have been used as the means to achieve this goal. The Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) is the latest supply-side program to use tax incentives to stimulate the development of low-income housing by the private sector. When the LIHTC was written. Congress incorporated several secondary goals into its structure. These secondary goals include tying the amount of the subsidy directly to the low-income units provided by the property, substantially reducing the maximum qualifying income level for tenants, setting a maximum gross rent on units receiving the credit, and creating a new allocation process for distributing the tax subsidy to applicants. The LIHTC is structured to encourage the rehabilitation and construction of low-income housing units with rent restrictions. Owners of low-income housing projects allocated the LIHTC are entitled to an annual credit for ten years. Over the first ten years of the tax credit program, annual allocations of the credit have totaled over $3.2 billion, and these aimual allocations will reduce federal revenues $32 billion. The LIHTC, originally created as a temporary provision of the Tax Reform Act of 1986, was made a permanent part of the Internal Revenue Code by the Revenue Reconciliation Act of 1993. Congress took this action in spite of the program's negative impact on tax evenues and concerns that the LIHTC program might not be meeting the goals set by Congress.Item Challenges facing non-profits in affordable housing development(2008-05) Ng, Michelle Denise; Mueller, Elizabeth J.This professional report examines the key contextual and organizational factors affecting community development corporations (CDCs) in the development of affordable housing. Using the findings of a systematic case study carried out by William Rohe and Rachel Bratt, I offer a detailed discussion of these factors in the context of a number of case studies, including an extensive discussion of the life cycle of Eastside Community Investments (ECI), a CDC that served the Near Eastside Neighborhood in Indianapolis, Indiana. Following this discussion, I explore a number of policy implications of this case study for the community development sector. The effective production of affordable housing involves a number of key players, including CDCs themselves, their intermediaries, the government, and the community; the active participation and commitment of all of these organizations is crucial to the long-term sustained success of the entire industry.Item Creative financing & strategies for mixed-income transit oriented development in Dallas, Texas(2013-08) Partovi, Lauren Neda; Wilson, Barbara B. (Barbara Brown)This study evaluates the current environment for mixed-income transit oriented development along DART rail within the city limits of Dallas. A close look at income and racial disparity is used as the foundation for advocating for a more proactive and aggressive approach to the development of affordable units proximate to affordable transportation choices. Assembling financing for mixed-income TOD projects is especially challenging, and multiple layers of federal, state, and city funding mechanisms are required for achieving the capital requirements of the development. Both typical affordable housing funding methods and new and nontraditional funding methods for multifamily housing were researched and evaluated with the intention to propose possibilities for catalyzing development in DART station areas within the City of Dallas that have, to this point, experienced underdevelopment.Item Design factors in mixed income housing – a comparison between the U.S. and the UK(2009-05) Qi, Meng, active 2009; Mueller, Elizabeth J.Design has played a complicated role in affordable housing in both the U.S. and the UK. These two countries have had fairly different approaches towards their affordable housing policy in the past, but now have both converged to using mixed income housing as a primary method of delivering affordable housing. This report will investigate the role that design plays in the ways that each of these countries administers its mixed income housing programs. Specifically, it will look at how design is used to achieve the goals behind mixed income housing, as well as specific decisions regarding exterior treatment and siting of the units in a mixed income housing development. I will use a case study approach in my research process, focusing on two case studies in the UK, and two case studies in the U.S. In order to obtain my findings, I used key informant interviews, key policy and program documents, and on-site observations. Ultimately, I found that design factors need to be carefully balanced between social equity goals and financial feasibility, and it is important to recognize the limitations of what mixed income housing can achieve for social goals.Item Halfway homeowners : geospatial and ethnographic analysis of eviction in mobile home parks(2015-05) Sullivan, Mary-Esther; Auyero, Javier; Ekland-Olson, Sheldon; Mueller, Elizabeth; Young, Michael; Ward, Peter MManufactured housing, which houses approximately 22 million Americans, is a material expression of a fundamental shift in U.S. housing policy from the federal allocation to the for-profit development of low-income housing. These policies have contributed to the explosive growth of manufactured housing, now the single largest source of unsubsidized affordable housing in the U.S. Yet, because the majority of manufactured housing is installed in privately operated land-lease parks, the insecurity inherent in much low-income housing is especially tangible in mobile home parks, where residents can be forcibly evicted at any time. To date, no systematic studies locate or examine the socio-spatial characteristics of the turnover and displacement that result from the frequent closure of mobile home parks. To better understand manufactured housing insecurity specifically and forced residential relocation more generally, this mixed-method dissertation utilizes both geospatial analysis and two years of ethnographic research living full time within closing mobile home parks in Florida and Texas where whole communities, hundreds of households, are evicted en masse. Utilizing geographic information systems (GIS) analysis I first construct a geospatial solution to locating formerly unrecorded mobile home park closures and map the location and socio-spatial characteristics of closed parks. I then conduct ethnography within closing mobile home parks, focusing on the household level impacts of eviction, the community-wide responses to displacement, and the particular ways state regulations are enacted and public-private partnerships are formed to relocate residents under different regulatory regimes. I analyze the mechanisms through which local contexts and state-level policies determine the options, resources, and timelines available to the evicted and thus shape the contours of their forced mobility.Item The rise of renters and renting in Texas colonias(2013-05) Durst, Noah Joseph; Ward, Peter M., 1951-; Wilson, Robert HinesThis report documents the growth of renting in Texas colonias, low-income informal settlements along the US-Mexico border. Historically, owner-occupied self-help and self-managed housing has been the norm in these settlements, so scholarly treatment of renting in colonias has been very limited. I begin with a literature review of housing development and housing policy in colonias, before turning, for comparison, to a discussion of renting in the US as well as in informal settlements in the developing world. Chapter 2 draws upon data from the US Census Bureau to describe the nature and extent of the colonia rental market in the six Texas counties with the largest colonia populations: my analysis reveals that renters now make up more than one in five colonia households. I expand on this discussion by examining differences between renter and owner households, paying particular attention to factors that make renters more vulnerable than owners. Chapter 3 employs a variety of regression models to identify the determinants of varying rental rates in colonias. The results suggest that larger, older, and more densely populated colonias have higher rates of renting. In Chapter 4, I utilize a mixed methods approach -- including household surveys, key informant interviews, and intensive case study interviews -- to a) better understand the tenure decisions of colonia renters and to place such decisions within a context of extreme socio-economic vulnerability and b) examine the factors that incentivize a turn toward renting among property owners. I conclude with a discussion of potential policy solutions to ensure that colonia rental accommodation remains affordable, accessible, and of sufficient quality.Item Smaller is better : barriers to building affordable multifamily housing at a neighborhood scale(2007-05) Keane, Nora; Mueller, Elizabeth J.Low- and moderate-income Americans rely on affordable housing. It is clear that affordable rental housing is needed, but much of what is getting built, especially in the high-growth West and South, gives rise to negative externalities based on the large number of units in the projects. This report looks at objections to large apartment complexes and makes the case for smaller-scale multifamily developments, studies how housing policy in the US has disadvantaged multifamily development, and investigates barriers to small-scale developments relating to mortgage markets, the Low Income Housing Tax Credit, and the models of nonprofit affordable housing providers.