Opportunity Based Housing: Kirwan Institute Housing Policy Advocacy and Research

1
Opportunity Based HousingKirwan Institute
Housing PolicyAdvocacy and Research

• May 19th 2006
• Presentation for the City and Regional Planning
• Brown Bag Seminar Series
• Jason Reece, AICP
• Senior Research Specialist
• Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and
  Ethnicity
• The Ohio State University
• http//www.kirwaninstitute.org/
• Reece.35_at_osu.edu

2
About the Kirwan Institute

• Founded in 2003, under the leadership of john a.
  powell
• Mission of eliminating racial hierarchies and
  disparities
• Truly interdisciplinary and working on a wide
  spectrum of issues
• Housing a major component of our work
• Staff of four planners/geographers that work on
  housing related issues (and other regional equity
  issues)

3
Todays Presentation

• Why Opportunity Matters
• Framework for Kirwans Housing Advocacy and
  Research
• The Opportunity Based Housing Model
• On-going Major Projects/Initiatives
• Low Income Housing Tax Credit Reform
• Thompson v. HUD (Fair Housing Litigation)

4
Opportunity MattersPlace, Space and Life Outcomes
5
Housing and Life Outcomes

• Where you live is more important than what you
  live in
• Housing, in particular its location, is the
  primary mechanism for accessing opportunity in
  our society
• Housing location determines the quality of
  schools children attend, the quality of public
  services, access to employment and
  transportation, health risks, access to health
  care and public safety
• For those living in high poverty neighborhoods
  these factors can significantly inhibit life
  outcomes

6
Housing and Opportunity

• Housing is Critical in Determining Access to
  Opportunity

7
The Web of Opportunity

• Opportunities in our society are geographically
  distributed and often clustered throughout
  metropolitan areas
• This creates winner and loser communities or
  high and low opportunity communities
• Your location within this web of opportunity
  plays a decisive role in your life potential and
  outcomes
• Individual characteristics still matter but so
  does environment
• Often impacting individual decision making

8
From the 2004 Federal Millennial Housing
Commission Report

• neighborhood quality plays an important role
  in positive outcomes for families. Stable housing
  in an unstable neighborhood does not necessarily
  allow for positive employment and child education
  outcomes. Federal demonstration programs enabling
  the poor to move from distressed city
  neighborhoods to lower-poverty communities
  underscore the potent impact of neighborhood
  quality on family stability.
• From Meeting our nations housing challenges.
  Report of the Bipartisan Millenial Housing
  Commission, Appointed by the Congress of the
  United States. Page 11 (2002)

9
Conditions in High and Low Opportunity Areas
Economic Opportunities
High Opportunity
Low Opportunity
10
Children and Schools
High Opportunity
Low Opportunity
11
Housing
High Opportunity
Low Opportunity
12
The Impact of Place Qualitative Research from
the MTO Program

• Reflections on original neighborhoods and housing
  projects
• "It was like being in a war zone. It was really
  bad...A lot of drug dealings. Shoot-outs. Girls
  getting beat up by their boyfriends. Young
  girlsEverybody has such low self-esteem and no
  regard for each other. Nobody looked out for
  each other. It was horrible."

13
The Impact of Place Qualitative Research from
the MTO Program

• Reflections on new neighborhood
• "I can lay down and have peace. You know what
  I'm saying? What if I have to jump up and look
  out the window and see what's going on? People
  shooting, people running...I can't leave the
  building. I'm scared to go to the store. I
  don't have to go through all that. I can walk
  down the street and go to the store. I can send
  my little son up there on the corner to the
  store. And knowing he's going to come back
  safely....

14
The Impact of Place Qualitative Research from
the MTO Program

• Impact of the move
• "I just got promoted to a higher
  position...Moving has done wonderful things for
  me and my family. It has given me an outlook on
  things that I'm surrounded by. Better
  neighborhood, better schools for my kids, a
  better job, great things for me."
• "It gave me a better outlook on life, that there
  is a life outside of that housing."

15
Subsidized Housing Policy, Opportunity and
Segregation

• Subsidized housing siting supports racial
  segregation by concentrating units in
  predominately poor African American communities
• In 2000, three quarters of the nations
  traditional assisted housing units were located
  in central cities, while only 37 of the nations
  metropolitan population lived in central cities
• The average metropolitan neighborhood with
  subsidized housing had a poverty rate that was
  three times higher than the average neighborhood

16
(No Transcript)
17
Racial Segregation, Opportunity Segregation and
Racial Disparities

• Subsidized housing policies and factors converge
  to produce continued racial segregation in our
  society
• Often this racial segregation coexists with
  segregation into high poverty neighborhoods and
  separation from many of the opportunities in our
  metropolitan regions
• Producing a racial isolation in neighborhoods
  that are lacking the essential opportunities to
  advance in our society (fueling racial
  disparities)

18
The Cumulative Impacts of Racial and Opportunity
Segregation
Segregation impacts a number of life-opportunities
Impacts on Health
School Segregation
Impacts on Educational Achievement
Exposure to crime arrest
Transportation limitations and other inequitable
public services
Job segregation
Neighborhood Segregation
Racial stigma, other psychological impacts
Impacts on community power and individual assets
Adapted from figure by Barbara Reskin at
http//faculty.washington.edu/reskin/
19
(No Transcript)
20
Opportunity Based HousingConnecting Affordable
Housing to Communities of Opportunity
21
The Communities of Opportunity Approach

• The opportunity based housing model was
  proposed by Kirwan Institute Executive Director
  john powell
• The model is based an extensive body of research
  and literature related to concentrated poverty,
  regional equity, metropolitan dynamics, spatial
  racism, housing mobility, segregation, etc.

22
Linking Housing to Opportunity

• Need to move beyond thinking of affordable
  housing/subsidized housing in terms of fair
  share or suburban/urban dichotomy
• Need to think in terms of opportunity
• Opportunity structures are the resources and
  services that contribute to stability and
  advancement
• Fair access to opportunity structures is limited
  by segregation, concentration of poverty,
  fragmentation, and sprawl in our regions for
  low-income households and families of color

23
The Communities of Opportunity Approach

• The central principle of opportunity based
  housing is that residents of metropolitan regions
  are situated within a complex, interconnected web
  of opportunity structures (or lack thereof) that
  significantly shapes their quality of life
• Further, affordable housing must be located in
  proximity to opportunity
• Identifying communities of opportunity is a
  central component of the model

24
A Regional Model of Opportunity Based Housing

• Utilizing opportunity based housing principles to
  guide housing policy, coordinate affordable
  housing initiatives and target neighborhood
  revitalization
• Target affordable housing development in areas of
  opportunity
• Inclusionary zoning, Low Income Housing Tax
  Credit, Voucher Mobility Programs, Work Force
  Housing Initiatives
• Target revitalization initiatives in areas of low
  opportunity
• Understand trends in opportunity
• Where are jobs growing? Who is losing tax base?
• Utilize this analysis to help support communities
  whose opportunity structures are being
  destabilized
• Opportunity mapping

25
KI InitiativesReforming the Low Income Housing
Tax Credit Program
26
LIHTC Advocacy and Research

• The LIHTC program is a 5 billion tax credit
  program for private developers to create
  affordable housing opportunities
• While recent federal budgets have reduced funding
  for most housing programs (public housing,
  vouchers, Hope VI), the LIHTC program has
  remained untouched
• The LIHTC program is the primary source of new
  subsidized housing construction in the US
• LIHTC projects produced over 800,000 units in the
  1990s, compared to just 50,000 units of
  traditional site based subsidized housing

27
Is the LIHTC Producing Segregation?

• Although the LIHTC program is siting units in
  slightly better neighborhoods than traditional
  public housing, these neighborhoods still
  continue to be areas of very high poverty and
  predominately segregated
• Most notably in urban areas of the Midwest and
  Northeast
• The LIHTC program is administered by the IRS and
  has become a civil rights free zone because of
  the unusual way the program is implemented
• KI and PRRAC are working with state advocates and
  housing finance agencies to set guidelines to
  reduce segregation in LIHTC siting and connect
  more LIHTC units to high opportunity areas

28

• KI and PRRAC have worked in several states to
  identify problems in siting patterns of LIHTC
  units and to propose strategies to reform siting
  guidelines
• Maryland
• North Carolina
• Illinois
• Wisconsin

29
KI InitiativesThompson v. HUDFair Housing
Litigation
30
More on Thompson v. HUD

• Lawsuit filed on behalf of 14,000 African
  American public housing residents in the City of
  Baltimore, plaintiffs representatives include the
  Maryland ACLU and NAACP Legal Defense Fund
• The case has been in court for 12 years
• In January 2005, US District Court Judge Garbis
  found HUD liable for violating the federal Fair
  Housing Act, for not providing fair housing
  opportunities to Baltimores African American
  public housing residents
• The current remedial phase involves designing a
  court ordered remedy to address HUDs fair
  housing violation
• "Baltimore City should not be viewed ... as a
  container for all of the poor of a contiguous
  region
• U.S. District Judge Marvin J. Garbis

31
More on Thompson v. HUD

• We intend to secure a remedy that will help
  African American public housing residents undo
  the harms they have suffered for more than sixty
  years because of HUDs discriminatory policies.
  We believe that this case, in Thurgood Marshalls
  hometown, is the most important housing
  desegregation lawsuit in a generation.
• -Theodore M. Shaw, NAACP LDF Director-Counsel
  and President

32
Thompson V. HUD

• A Communities of Opportunity strategy is being
  proposed in the Fair Housing suit Thompson v. HUD
• Based on the expert opinion and report submitted
  by john powell, with assistance from Kirwan
  housing staff
• Thompson v. HUD is one of the largest fair
  housing lawsuits in recent years

33
Conditions in Baltimore

• Subsidized housing opportunities in Baltimore are
  generally clustered in the regions predominately
  African American neighborhoods

34
(No Transcript)
35
Director powells Remedial Proposal

• The remedy must provide desegregative housing
  units in areas of opportunity
• The proposal conducted an opportunity mapping
  analysis in the region to locate high opportunity
  census tracts
• The remedy must be regional in scope
• The remedy must be race conscious
• The remedial program should be a structured
  choice model and voluntary for P.H. residents
• The remedy must be goal driven, not process
  driven
• HUD must consider both vouchers and housing
  production to meet the remedys goals

36
Opportunity Analysis

• Use of 14 indicators of neighborhood opportunity
  to designate high and low opportunity
  neighborhoods in the Baltimore region
• Indicators of Opportunity (General)
• Neighborhood Quality/Health
• Poverty, Crime, Vacancy, Property Values,
  Population Trends
• Economic Opportunity
• Proximity to Jobs and Job Changes, Public Transit
• Educational Opportunity
• School Poverty, School Test Scores, Teacher
  Qualifications

37
Opportunity and Race

• African Americans are generally clustered in the
  Baltimore regions lowest opportunity
  neighborhoods

38
Conditions in Baltimore

• Subsidized housing opportunities in Baltimore are
  generally clustered in the regions lowest
  opportunity neighborhoods

39
Final Plaintiffs Proposed Remedy

• Plaintiffs propose providing desegregative
  housing opportunities in the regions high
  opportunity neighborhoods to remedy HUDs fair
  housing violations
• With the goal of providing nearly 7,000
  affordable housing opportunities in high
  opportunity communities to public housing
  residents who volunteer to relocate in ten years
• Aligned with proposals to provide support
  services for residents who volunteer for the
  program

40
HUDs Response

• The judge has not legal authority to impose a
  remedy, only the ability to recommend a remedy
• The remedial proposal is infeasible
• A regional remedial program is impractical and
  new housing production will be too costly
• The selection of opportunity areas is arbitrary
• HUDs experts arguments
• Segregation is natural and the result of only
  income and personal preference, the government
  can do nothing about this
• More African Americans are living in the suburbs
  therefore segregation is not a concern in our
  current society
• The harms of living in concentrated poverty and
  the benefits of living near opportunity
  structures, are overstated and not provable
• Mobility based housing programs are not
  sustainable and in-place strategies are
  preferable (enterprise zones in urban areas etc.)

41
The Class and Segregation Argument What about
Low Income Whites?
42
Opportunity, Race and Class
43
Status of the Case

• Remedial phase trial ended in early May of 2006
• Awaiting Judge Garbiss final decision later this
  year
• The HUD/DOJ very likely to appeal
• Consortium of advocates in the Baltimore region
  are starting a campaign to build support for the
  program and aligning support services for movers
• Partial consent decree program is continuing and
  is very popular

44
Conclusion

• A growing movement?
• Grow interest in the communities of opportunity
  approach
• Other projects of interest
• Cleveland (Race and Regionalism)
• Gulf Coast Initiatives
• Collaboration and partnership
• KI always looking to engage with the OSU
  community in the future

45
Questions or Comments? For More Information
Visit Us On-Linewww.KirwanInstitute.org