Housing for Low-income Urban Families

Housing for Low-income Urban Families

Author: Orville F. Grimes

Publisher: Baltimore : Published for the World Bank [by] Johns Hopkins University Press

Published: 1976

Total Pages: 200

ISBN-13:

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The considerable importance of housing to the urban and national economy contrasts sharply with housing conditions and official policies that exist in many developing countries. For all but the middle- and upper-income groups, housing is usually costly in relation to income and the quality of dwellings available. Cramped, crowded, and unsanitary settlements are the lot of low-income families, conditions that debilitate their energy and reduce national productivity. Families in illegal dwellings constantly face the threat of eviction as well as scarcities of water, sewerage, and transport. Often, under the banner of slum clearance, low-income groups are removed to higher-quality dwellings located far from income-earning opportunities and asked to pay rents they cannot afford. This study is intended to contribute to the discussions of housing policy options among urban planners and policymakers in developing countries. It does not attempt to analyze the optimal allocation of investment in urban areas or to suggest what place housing should have in such investment. There is no argument for a shift of capital and other resources from other sectors into housing. Instead, the principal intention is to achieve a better understanding of the workings of the urban housing market, especially as it affects low-income families, so as to bring about an improved use of the resources already used for housing and to allow new resources to be used effectively.


Urban Housing Policy

Urban Housing Policy

Author: William G. Grigsby

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-09-29

Total Pages: 350

ISBN-13: 1351300555

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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.


Affordable Housing in the Urban Global South

Affordable Housing in the Urban Global South

Author: Jan Bredenoord

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-06-05

Total Pages: 439

ISBN-13: 1317910168

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The global increase in the number of slums calls for policies which improve the conditions of the urban poor, sustainably. This volume provides an extensive overview of current housing policies in Asia, Africa and Latin America and presents the facts and trends of recent housing policies. The chapters provide ideas and tools for pro-poor interventions with respect to the provision of land for housing, building materials, labour, participation and finance. The book looks at the role of the various stakeholders involved in such interventions, including national and local governments, private sector organisations, NGOs and Community-based Organisations.


Paths To Homelessness

Paths To Homelessness

Author: Doug A Timmer

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-06-04

Total Pages: 189

ISBN-13: 100031281X

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The major theme in this book is that people are homeless because of structural arrangements and trends that result in extreme impoverishment and a shortage of affordable housing in U.S. cities. It explains the economic and historical causes of homelessness with accounts of individuals and families.


The Affordable Housing Reader

The Affordable Housing Reader

Author: Elizabeth J. Mueller

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-03-05

Total Pages: 594

ISBN-13: 1135746397

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The Affordable Housing Reader brings together classic works and contemporary writing on the themes and debates that have animated the field of affordable housing policy as well as the challenges in achieving the goals of policy on the ground. The Reader – aimed at professors, students, and researchers – provides an overview of the literature on housing policy and planning that is both comprehensive and interdisciplinary. It is particularly suited for graduate and undergraduate courses on housing policy offered to students of public policy and city planning. The Reader is structured around the key debates in affordable housing, ranging from the conflicting motivations for housing policy, through analysis of the causes of and solutions to housing problems, to concerns about gentrification and housing and race. Each debate is contextualized in an introductory essay by the editors, and illustrated with a range of texts and articles. Elizabeth Mueller and Rosie Tighe have brought together for the first time into a single volume the best and most influential writings on housing and its importance for planners and policy-makers.


Race for Profit

Race for Profit

Author: Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

Publisher: UNC Press Books

Published: 2019-09-03

Total Pages: 364

ISBN-13: 1469653672

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LONGLISTED FOR THE 2019 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST, 2020 PULITZER PRIZE IN HISTORY By the late 1960s and early 1970s, reeling from a wave of urban uprisings, politicians finally worked to end the practice of redlining. Reasoning that the turbulence could be calmed by turning Black city-dwellers into homeowners, they passed the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968, and set about establishing policies to induce mortgage lenders and the real estate industry to treat Black homebuyers equally. The disaster that ensued revealed that racist exclusion had not been eradicated, but rather transmuted into a new phenomenon of predatory inclusion. Race for Profit uncovers how exploitative real estate practices continued well after housing discrimination was banned. The same racist structures and individuals remained intact after redlining's end, and close relationships between regulators and the industry created incentives to ignore improprieties. Meanwhile, new policies meant to encourage low-income homeownership created new methods to exploit Black homeowners. The federal government guaranteed urban mortgages in an attempt to overcome resistance to lending to Black buyers – as if unprofitability, rather than racism, was the cause of housing segregation. Bankers, investors, and real estate agents took advantage of the perverse incentives, targeting the Black women most likely to fail to keep up their home payments and slip into foreclosure, multiplying their profits. As a result, by the end of the 1970s, the nation's first programs to encourage Black homeownership ended with tens of thousands of foreclosures in Black communities across the country. The push to uplift Black homeownership had descended into a goldmine for realtors and mortgage lenders, and a ready-made cudgel for the champions of deregulation to wield against government intervention of any kind. Narrating the story of a sea-change in housing policy and its dire impact on African Americans, Race for Profit reveals how the urban core was transformed into a new frontier of cynical extraction.


Means-Tested Transfer Programs in the United States

Means-Tested Transfer Programs in the United States

Author: National Bureau of Economic Research

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2003-10-15

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 9780226533568

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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.