Chester Hartman

Evictions: The hidden housing problem

Abstract Although evictions are a major housing problem that disproportionately affects lower‐income and minority tenants, no systematic data about evictions are collected on a local or national level. This article presents the scattered available data on the magnitude and impact of the problem, along with existing model efforts to reduce its incidence and impact. Creating a national database on evictions—how many, where, who, why, and what happens to evictees—would be an important first step in focusing attention on this neglected issue. Definitional questions must be resolved as an initial step. In an effort to launch such a project, suggestions are offered on how to begin creating such a database.

The Housing of Relocated Families

Abstract Despite recently improved services and greater concern for families displaced by public action, relocation nonetheless remains an ancillary component of the renewal process. Relocation in this country has not been a rehousing operation (in the British sense of the word), a program whose primary goal is the resettlement of slum families into decent homes. Rather, it is a hurdle that must be overcome in order to effectuate certain land-use changes deemed desirable by the community. Detailed study of the new housing conditions of the population dislocated from Bostons West End and review of 33 other follow-up surveys of housing conditions among relocated families indicate some of the costs and benefits involved. Although the proportion of families living in substandard conditions usually is considerably lower following relocation, substantial. numbers of families continue to live in structurally unsound or overcrowded housing. In addition to the personal disruptions caused by forced relocation, the...

The case for a right to housing

Abstract America has the resources to guarantee everyone a right to decent, affordable housing, making real the now 50‐year‐old congressionally promulgated National Housing Goal. The issue is one of values—constantly expanding notions of social, civil, and economic rights—and can only be won through political struggle, as has been true historically of all rights expansions. The costs of not attaining this right, to those suffering from substandard housing conditions and unaffordable costs as well as to society as a whole, should be acknowledged and offset against the increased government outlays required to attain this goal. Ways in which some housing rights now exist are identified as a basis for wider expansion to a true right to decent, affordable housing.

Comment on “Neighborhood Revitalization and Displacement: A Review of the Evidence”

Abstract The issue of neighborhood revitalization and displacement certainly does have a deja vu quality to it. While government officials, academic housing analysts, and even neighborhood groups seem to approach the problem as if it were a brand new phenomenon, in reality the recent history of displacement under urban renewal, the interstate highway system, and other government programs is very relevant. What is remarkable in the spate of literature that recently has emerged on the issue—of which Sumkas article is quite representative—is the failure to acknowledge that history and the lessons it might offer.

Municipal Housing Code Enforcement and Low-Income Tenants

Abstract Municipal housing code enforcement often leads to rent increases, tenant moves to lower cost housing, evictions, and reduction in the low-rent housing stock, and thus may harm low-income tenants more than it helps them. A tenant-oriented approach to code enforcement would acknowledge these defects and not permit “market realities” (that is, the owners economic capabilities and motivations) to dictate enforcement practices and policies. Subsidies and controls that help low-income families afford decent housing must complement the states legal requirement that all housing units meet code standards. A proposal is put forth for rehabilitation and rent subsidies, controls on rents, and changes in ownership and control of rental property to be used in coordination with housing code enforcement. The importance of full participation of tenants and tenant organizations is stressed in all phases of this new approach to code enforcement.

The Limitations of Public Housing: Relocation Choices in a Working-Class Community

Abstract Public housing is regarded as a map resource for rehousing families displaced by the urban renewal and highway programs. Yet a study of some 500 families relocated from Bostons West End reveals that the overwhelming majority refused to consider the possibility of living in a housing project, for reasons consistent with their preference for the residential patterns and life-styles prevalent in their former neighborhood. Those who do relocate in projects are not typical of the stable working class, and most frequently are characterized by some personal situation that limits their rehousing choice. Planners are confronted with the alternative of allowing public housing to become a care-taking institution for the disabled elements of the society, or of creating new forms for the public housing subsidy to encourage mobility, to provide satisfactory living environments consistent with the values of the inhabitants, and to permit the kinds of heterogeneity which prevail in existing neighborhoods.

Public Housing Managers: An Appraisal

Abstract The characteristics and attitudes of public housing project managers are presented, as drawn from a mailed questionnaire returned by the managers of three-quarters of the public housing units in the country. Demographically, the managers differ sharply from the residents of public housing (although not to the extent true of housing authority commissioners and executive directors, as reported in two previous surveys). Although the job is exceedingly important for the two and one-half million persons who live in housing projects and requires a wide variety of skills, the position is ill-defined, both to the manager himself and to those responsible for filling these positions. Managers do not admit to much tenant-management conflict, despite tenant reports to the contrary. Nor is there much sentiment favoring increased tenant participation in project management, despite tenant demands for greater control, at least in the larger cities. Managers are caught in the middle of many of the public housing ...

The Social Construction of Disaster: New Orleans as the Paradigmatic American City

The water- and wind-driven devastation that wracked New Orleans and the entire Gulf Coast region during and after the 2005 hurricane season is virtually without parallel in recent U.S. history. A staggering two million people were displaced (Hsu 2006). In the wake of Katrina and Rita came a series of striking events, most of which were also without parallel. Illustrations include:

Comment on Robert E. Lang, Katrin B. Anacker, and Steven Hornburg's “the new politics of affordable housing”

Abstract This comment argues that reframing the issues of housing and housing affordability will not be enough to effect change. All Americans should have a decent, affordable place to live—and that is a profound moral issue. The fact that one‐third of the population is still ill‐housed means that a firm, direct, and possibly less‐than‐cagey approach is needed to address the nations housing problems.

Shelter and community

B y most physical criteria--notably, quantity and quality of living space--Americans are among the best-housed people in the world. The three decades following the end of World War II showed a marked reduction in most indices of housing distress: overcrowding, lack of adequate sanitary facilities, physical deterioration, and dilapidation. During the same period, there was an increase in home ownership, principally of singlefamily detached suburban homes with some private outdoor space. But since the early 1970s, severe problems have appeared at an alarming rate, throwing into serious question the systems ability to house its people decently. The often-overlapping symptoms of these problems are as follows. Mortgage interest rates are double what they were a decade ago, and triple what they were in the 1950s and early 1960s. There is a severe shortage of residential mortgage credit, as stronger borrowers--principally governments and corporations----compete for a lower level of savings. As a proportion of disposable personal income, personal savings have dropped sharply over the last decade, from the 8 to 8.5 percent range in the first half of the 1970s to the 5 to 5.5 percent range beginning in 1977. A variety of new inflation-sensitive mortgage instruments are rapidly replacing traditional level-payment mortgages, as lenders seek to shift the burdens of inflation to borrowers. The result is more tenuous homeownership status, as owners who use such instruments (either because no other mortgages are available or because superficially attractive temporary advantages are offered as a marketing device) no longer have the security of predictable fixed payments for the life of the mortgage. Moreover, enormous inflation in shelter costs occurred during the 1970s. While the consumer price index (CPI) for all items rose from 116.3 in 1970 to 269 in May 1981, the shelter index (rent, home purchase, mortgage interest rates, property taxes, maintenance and repairs) went, during that same period, from 123.6 to 308.4. The combined impact of rapidly escalating prices and rapidly escalating mortgage interest rates can be shown in the following comparison: