Query: affordable housing policy

title: Do housing allowances increase rents? Evidence from a discrete policy change
abstract: A major concern with demand side housing subsidies to low income tenants is the extent to which they may be captured by landlords in the form of higher rents. The Accommodation Supplement (AS) benefit is the largest housing subsidy policy in New Zealand. A 2005 policy change created a new AS area around central Auckland that resulted in an increase in AS entitlement for residents within the area compared to those outside. In this paper we exploit the natural experiment created by this policy change to evaluate whether the increase in accommodation support for recipients in the new area led to relatively higher rents than paid by recipients outside the boundary. We use administrative data for a sample of AS recipients on either side of the new area boundary over the four year period spanning the policy change. Our analysis shows that as a result of the policy change, recipients on the inside of the boundary received around $6.81 per week more in total accommodation support in the second year after the policy was implemented. We estimate that weekly rents increased on average about $2.44 more inside the boundary (36 percent of the increase in AS) and, as expected, the impacts were stronger at higher quantiles of the rent distribution. We also find that the rent increases were concentrated among families with children, and present some evidence that this reflected increased spending on housing (which may have reduced over crowding) rather than a wider increase in rental prices.

title: Affordable housing policy development: public official perspectives
abstract: This paper aims to examine the factors affecting the implementation of affordable housing policies in two Chinese municipal governments. Since 2010, the Chinese government has enforced an ambitious plan to adopt affordable housing provisions accompanying a series of urbanization programs. Furthermore, the policy implementation at the local level has led to various outcomes but has been scarcely investigated. The views of policy implementation from local officials are crucial in the context of intergovernmental relations. Therefore, it is important to examine the views of local public officials on the development status and challenges in the context of Chinese intergovernmental relations.  This paper verifies which factors exert significant impacts on the willingness of local officials to adapt affordable housing policies by using the logistic regression model and marginal effect estimation. With original data from the fieldwork surveys of city administrators, the measures incorporated local characteristics as well as the intergovernmental support from the central government in two selected megacities, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.  There are significant differences in local investment between the selected cities. Intergovernmental support from the central government, city development strategies, implementation perceptions of local governments and land supply, all significantly impact the selection of an affordable housing program and its overall implementation.  To the best of the authors' understanding, this study would be one of the first to empirically explore the view of municipal public officials on affordable housing policy in China. This paper provides an empirical analysis from municipal public officials on the local implementation of affordable housing policies in China. As the outcome of housing policies actually depends on the implementation willingness of public officials and the overall performance of local governments, this explorative study would benefit the future development of China's affordable housing policy.

title: Affordable Housing and Housing Policy Responses to Homelessness
abstract: The lack of affordable housing is the number one cause of homelessness in the USA. Research shows that housing, more than any other factor, brings residential stability for low income families and people who are living on the streets with chronic mental illness and/or addiction. This chapter reviews the benefits of affordable housing beyond ending homelessness and describes varied policy solutions to develop and preserve more affordable housing or make the existing housing stock more affordable for low income families.

title: Waiting for Affordable Housing in New York City
abstract: We develop a new dynamic equilibrium model with heterogeneous households that captures the most important frictions that arise in housing rental markets and explains the political popularity of affordable housing policies. We estimate the model using data collected by the New York Housing Vacancy Survey in 2011. We find that there are significant adjustment costs in all markets as well as serious search frictions in the market for affordable housing. Moreover, there are large queuing frictions in the market for public housing. Having access to rent stabilized housing increases household welfare by up to $65,000. Increasing the supply of affordable housing by 10% significantly improves the welfare of all renters in the city. Progressive taxation of higher income households that live in public housing can also be welfare improving. Urban housing policies excess demand housing supply moving costs rationing search frictions queuing C33 C83 D45 D58 H72 R31

title: Affordable Housing and City Welfare
abstract: Housing affordability is the main policy challenge for many large cities in the world. Zoning changes, rent control, housing vouchers, and tax credits are the main levers employed by policy makers. But how effective are they at combatting the affordability crisis? We build a new framework to evaluate the effect of these policies on the well being of its citizens. It endogenizes house prices, rents, construction, labor supply, output, income and wealth inequality, as well as the location decisions of households. Its main novel features are risk, risk aversion, and incomplete risk sharing. We calibrate the model to the New York MSA, incorporating current zoning and affordable housing policies. Housing affordability policies carry substantial insurance value but cause misallocation in labor and housing markets. Housing affordability policies that enhance access to this insurance especially for the neediest households create large net welfare gains.

title: Reinterpreting Existenzminimum in Contemporary Affordable Housing Solutions
abstract: During the housing crisis of the 1920s, the German concept Existenzminimum (minimum dwelling) was developed and applied to the construction of public social housing. It was considered a design laboratory, where research, design, and experimentation would focus on a unique goal: create a space efficient affordable housing typology, based on minimum quality standards. Empirical evidence indicates a renewed interest in alternative design solutions and minimum dwelling approaches over the last decade: examples include micro housing solutions and collaborative housing models. This is due to the current affordable crisis and the increasing trend of urbanisation. However, little is known about the current interpretation of Existenzminimum. What does the concept entail today and how has it developed? This article investigates if and how Existenzminimum is currently applied: first, it unfolds the core design principles of the original Existenzminimum. Then, these principles are used to assess if and how existing affordable or low cost housing approaches are current (re)interpretations of the concept. Finally, the article proposes a definition for a contemporary Existenzminimum, arguing that a better understanding and awareness of the concept can help urban planners, designers, policy makers and citizens in developing alternative affordable housing solutions.

title: Does the Likely Demographics of Affordable Housing Justify NIMBYism?
abstract: NIMBYism (not in my backyard) decreases the amount of affordable housing construction. A possible motivator for this is an existing homeowner's fear that proximity to affordable housing depresses property value. Using a hedonic regression analysis of the sales prices of homes in Sacramento County, California, this study finds that increases in the demographic characteristics in a census tract that are likely to increase if more affordable housing is built there lower the sales price of a home. This finding holds even after controlling for the percentages of racial/ethnic groups more likely to face discrimination. Policymakers should recognize this economic element of NIMBYism as they consider instruments to increase the amount of affordable housing built. We conclude with a suggestion for a knowingly controversial policy mechanism based upon cap and trade with the hope it will spur further debate on this issue.

title: Community land trusts: releasing possible selves through stable affordable housing
abstract: Housing affordability a long standing issue for low income households is crucial for the flourishing of both households and communities. When housing is unaffordable, households struggle to attain and maintain housing, which negatively effects household well being. Since the foreclosure crisis, community land trusts (CLTs) have emerged as a viable housing policy. Relying on quantitative and qualitative data collected by a Minneapolis based CLT, this study examines the experiences of 91 CLT homeowners. Our analysis illustrates how the CLT's institutional framework alters the political, economic, social and material relations that characterize the lives of these households to facilitate the provision of previously unavailable resources. Beyond indefinitely stabilizing households, this new arrangement of relations creates a foundation for the cultivation of ontological security and contributes to the opening up of possibilities and the unfolding of life in ways not previously possible.

title: Critical success factors (CSFs) for sustainable affordable housing
abstract: Interventions for sustainability attainment in affordable housing have received increasing attention from policy makers globally. However, policy makers' interventions for sustainable affordable housing markets can be inefficient and even counterproductive. As such, among the diverse interventions available, a vital question is what are the potential efficient interventions? To address this question, the views of affordable housing experts (also knowledgeable in sustainable housing) around the world were solicited via a questionnaire survey to identify critical success factors (CSFs) for sustainable affordable housing. Relative significance analysis of the data led to the identification of 13 CSFs. Furthermore, agreement analysis revealed that there is no good agreement between respondents from the academic sector and those from the industrial sector on the ranking of the 13 CSFs. Moreover, through factor analysis, the CSFs were grouped into four underlying components: developer's enabling CSFs; household demand enabling CSFs; mixed land use CSFs; land use planning CSFs. The research findings seek to inform policy makers on the CSFs for efficient resource utilization for sustainable affordable housing market. Future study would establish a relationship between the CSFs and success criteria for sustainable affordable housing.

title: Affordable Housing and the Socioeconomic Integration of Elementary Schools
abstract: Children from poor families achieve more academically if they are enrolled in schools that are socioeconomically integrated, but low income students are increasingly attending schools characterized by high concentrations of poverty. Providing more housing opportunities for low income families within the attendance zones of middle and high income schools has the potential to reverse this trend, but the link between the housing stock and the socioeconomic segregation of public schools has not been addressed in the existing literature. Using a panel of elementary schools in Florida, we show that increasing the stock of rental and affordable housing units in middle and high income neighborhoods has an important effect on the number of poor children attending these schools. Our results also reveal the types of housing units that have the largest impacts on socioeconomic segregation.