Anne B. Shlay

Low-income Homeownership: American Dream or Delusion?

This paper is a critical analysis of recent US policy to promote low-income homeownership. It examines the ideology and assumptions buttressing this policy, evidence on the effects of low-income homeownership and the viability of homeownership as a strategy for low-income families. Evidence suggests that the prospect for sustained growth in low-income homeownership may be limited. Research does not provide uniform support for it as a tool for asset accumulation, neighbourhood economic development or other social and political goals. Alleged effects of homeownership may be artefacts of self-selection and the conflation of homeownership with unobserved characteristics coincident with buying homes. What homeownership does and why are not well understood because of difficulties disentangling what homeownership means. The elevation of low-income homeownership to its current status has deflected political attention away from alternative policies for affordable housing.

Barriers to subsidies: why low-income families do not use child care subsidies

Abstract Child care affordability is a problem for low-income families. Child care subsidies are intended to reduce child care expenses and promote parental employment for poor families. Yet many families fail to utilize the child care subsidies for which they are eligible. This research investigates barriers to utilizing child care subsidies. Found barriers include parents’ beliefs that they either did not need or were not eligible for subsidy. Knowingly eligible families avoided applying for subsidies because of hassles and restrictions, real or perceived, associated with accessing the subsidy system. Even families receiving subsidies were confused about subsidy regulations. The major predictors of subsidy use were prior welfare experience, single parenthood, family/household income, hours of employment, use of center care and in-home care, and receipt of court ordered child support. Policy recommendations include developing better methods for disseminating information about subsidy eligibility and reducing barriers associated with specific subsidy regulations.

Family self‐sufficiency and housing

Abstract Since the early 1980s, an increasing number of initiatives have been introduced to link housing programs and policies with efforts designed to promote family economic self‐sufficiency. This article reviews a set of programs that have worked to manipulate various components of the housing bundle to improve the economic well‐being of acutely poor families. They include programs that modify the characteristics and services available in the local community, alter families’ residential location, provide incentives and opportunities for homeownership, and link the provision of housing subsidies to increasing local capacity for service delivery. This article suggests that the centrality of housing in fostering or impeding economic mobility makes it a key element in dealing with acute poverty and part of a creative strategy for intervening in the dynamics of poverty. Several important areas need to be taken into account when evaluating current policy; and multiyear evaluations will be necessary to determ...

Housing in the broader context in the United States

Abstract Housing is central to participation in the economic mainstream, yet housing policy has been fragmented by competing, if not contradictory, goals. This article proposes an expanded policy that incorporates a stronger link between housing and economic inequality. Through examples, it argues that housing policy should be a tool for economic development, strengthening families, and building community. Definitions of adequate housing must go beyond minimum physical standards to include issues that are central to peoples ability to become successful members of society; housing can be an economic entity, a consumer item, or a spatial location. Going beyond bricks and mortar—making connections between housing policy and seemingly separate areas—allows policy to be more coherent. The article examines the links between housing and three vital areas: family life, community economic development, and social mobility. This analysis suggests that the most important housing problems are affordability, neighborh...

Same City, Different Worlds Examining Gender- and Work-Based Differences in Perceptions of Neighborhood Desirability

Studies of residential location typically have treated the household unit as an undifferentiated whole and have not accounted for divergent needs and desires between male and female household members. Using the factorial survey technique, this article examines different preferences for neighborhood characteristics between men and women, focusing on women with varying family and labor market responsibilities. Based on a sample of 177 Syracuse, New York, metropolitan residents, this article shows the desires of men, housewives, single women, and employed women for varying combinations of neighborhood attributes. Findings show that mens desires for neighborhoods suit them well for the typical suburb, whereas womens desired neighborhood characteristics are found both in suburbs and in central cities. Women expressed contradictory desires, wanting the density, residential homogeneity, and racial and socio-economic composition of suburbs, but with the diversity and proximity of services found in cities. These findings suggest that for women suburbs need to include higher densities, public services, and transportation, but should retain much of their residential ambience.

Making Place: The Shifting Green Line and the Development of “Greater” Metropolitan Jerusalem

This paper is about place making in Jerusalem, an important city at the heart of the Palestinian–Israeli conflict. It examines how place making in Jerusalem has had the consequence of shifting what is known as the Green Line. the Green Line represents the armistice or ceasefire boundaries following the end of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. Development of different parts of captured territories after the 1967 War has shifted and rendered unstable perceptions of the Green Line and has wreaked havoc with prevailing conceptions over what constitutes Jerusalem. Symbolic and social boundary reconstruction is at the heart of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, a powerfully organized mechanism that tilts power to Israel with the use of bulldozers, bricks, and cranes as well as tanks and weapons. the shifting Green Line represents a battle line of an idea war over Israels ability to claim legitimacy over a new Jerusalem. This paper examines the dynamic processes of how boundaries are being shifted through narratives of various actors involved in these processes.

Influencing the Agents of Urban Structure Evaluating the Effects of Community Reinvestment Organizing on Bank Residential Lending Practices

From the perspective of applied research, a critical urban theory presents the opportunity to become a force for social change. Nowhere has this perspective been more present than in activities around supporting the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). The author applies evidence from an evaluation of the impact of CRA organizing to assess the success of efforts to bring about institutional change. This research suggests that local organizing provided the impetus for the establishment of a national political climate favorable to serious CRA enforcement. Evaluation approaches are needed to move theory from being pure critique to developing strategies for change.

Running on empty: Monitoring the lives and circumstances of formerly homeless families with children

Homelessness is a manifestation of acute poverty accompanied by long-term unemployment, deficient human capital, problems with substance abuse, inadequate welfare benefits, and other vulnerabilities. Homeless people have problems that require sustained intervention strategies that will permit them the opportunity to enter the labor market, maintain permanent housing, remain healthy and functional, and take care of their families. To this end, more and more transitional housing programs have been opened—programs that provide shelter stays of longer duration than emergency shelters as well as an array of support services designed to help people move along the path toward economic independence. Do people do better after living in transitional housing? To address this question, this research monitored homeless families who “graduated” from a large transitional housing program in Baltimore. Following two cohorts of families for more than one year at several points in time, this research finds that families exhibited a series of positive changes in the lives of both adults as well as children. Families did not become economically self-sufficient as indicated by complete independence from income maintenance programs. This study suggests that the availability of income maintenance programs, particularly rental housing subsidies may be a critical factor in permitting homeless people to stabilize their life situations.

Whose Right to Jerusalem

Jerusalem is a city mired in spatial conflict. Its contested spaces represent deep conflicts among groups that vary by national identity, religion, religiosity and gender. The omnipresent nature of these conflicts provides an opportunity to look at Henri Lefebvres concept of the right to the city (RTC). The RTC has been adopted and celebrated as a political tool for positive change, enabling communities to take control of space. Based on extensive fieldwork and in-depth interviews, this article explores the complexity of the RTC principles and examines three urban battlefields in Jerusalem — Bar-Ilan Street, the Kotel and the Orient House. The RTC is a powerful idea, providing the opportunity to examine peoples everyday activities within the context of how space can be used to support their lives. Yet Jerusalems myriad divisions produce claims by different groups to different parts of the city. In Jerusalem, the RTC is not a clear vision but a kaleidoscope of rights that produces a fragmented landscape within a religious and ethno-national context governed by the nation state — Israel. The growth of cultural and ethnic diversity in urban areas may limit the possibility for a unified RTC to emerge in an urban sea of demands framed by difference. Space-based cultural conflict exemplifies urban divisions and exacerbates claims to ‘my Jerusalem’, not ‘our Jerusalem’. Identity-based claims to the RTC appear to work against, not for, a universalistic RTC.

Child care improvement on a shoestring: evaluating a low-cost approach to improving the availability of quality child care.

The Philadelphia Early Childhood Collaborative (the Collaborative) was designed to improve the quality of child care by increasing coordination among organizations that locally deliver professional resources to child care providers. The evaluation examined the implementation of the Collaborative, utilization of its services, and the impact of service use on child care quality. Child care providers reported gains in their professional knowledge and behavior from using Collaborative resources and rated the resources highly. No long-term effects on provider behavior, knowledge, or attitudes were observed. Although the original organizations were able to function collaboratively and Collaborative services were widely used, more intensive interventions may be required to change the availability of quality child care.