Menino Survey of Mayors 2018 Results

Report on research findings.The 2018 Menino Survey of Mayors represents the fifth scientifically rigorous and nationally representative survey of American mayors released by the Boston University Initiatives on Cities and supported by Citi Community Development and The Rockefeller Foundation. The Survey, based on interviews with 110 sitting mayors conducted in 2018, reveals mayoral views on economic development—including corporate recruitment, financial incentives, the sharing economy, and social mobility—as well as public health, housing, and intergovernmental relations.Citi Community Development and The Rockefeller Foundatio

Housing and Public Safety

"Housing and Public Safety," one of four briefs, finds that increased availability of quality, affordable or supportive housing is associated with public safety benefits. The release of this brief corresponds with concerns about the U.S. housing market and economic stability.Key findings from "Housing and Public Safety" include:Some studies found that substandard housing -- particularly where exposure to lead hazards is more likely to occur -- is associated with higher violent crime rates. Studies have shown that exposure to lead -- associated with older, deteriorated and lower-quality housing -- can result in increased delinquency, violence and crime.For populations who are the most at-risk for criminal justice system involvement, supportive or affordable housing has been shown to be a cost effective public investment, lowering corrections and jail expenditures, thus freeing up funds for other pubic safety investments. Additionally, providing affordable or supportive housing to people leaving correctional facilities is an effective means of reducing the chance of future incarceration. States that spent more on housing experienced lower incarceration rates than those states that spent less. Of the 10 states that spent the larger proportion of their total expenditures on housing, all 10 had incarceration rates lower than the national average. Of the 10 states that spent the smaller proportion of their total expenditures on housing, five states had incarceration rates above the national average (with two states having incarceration rates just below the national average)

Long-Term Low Income Housing Tax Credit Policy Questions

Discusses Low Income Housing Tax Credit policy questions such as whether to target the lowest-income families, issues such as geographic gaps in tax credit investment demand, and ongoing capital needs and asset management for LIHTC properties

Creating Change through Arts, Culture, and Equitable Development: A Policy and Practice Primer

Across the nation, artistic and cultural practices are helping to define the sustainability of urban, rural, and suburban neighborhoods. In the design of parks and open spaces; the building of public transit, housing, and supermarkets; in plans for addressing needs for community health and healing trauma; communities are embracing arts and culture strategies to help create equitable communities of opportunity where everyone can participate, prosper, and achieve their full potential. And artists are seeing themselves -- and being seen by others -- as integral community members whose talents, crafts, and insights pave the way to support community engagement and cohesion."Creating Change through Arts, Culture, and Equitable Development: A Policy and Practice Primer" highlights both promising and proven practices that demonstrate equity-focused arts and culture policies, strategies, and tools. The report describes the role of arts and culture across the nine sectors below. Within each policy chart there are goals, policies, and implementation strategies that can help achieve communities of opportunity. These policies have yielded such outcomes as: support for Native artists in reservation-based cultural economies, the creation of a citywide cultural plan, engaging low-income youth of color in using digital media, and efforts to address redevelopment, employment, food access, and environmental justice

Financing Housing Supports for Youth Transitioning Out of Foster Care

This strategy brief, written by The Finance Project with support from the Foster Care Work Group (FCWG), one of three work groups of the Youth Transition Funders Group (YTFG), explores strategies for financing supports and services that help foster youth make successful transitions to adulthood. Foundation leaders participating in the YTFG are committed to achieving a common visio -- ensuring that vulnerable youth are connected by age 25 to institutions and support systems that will enable them to succeed throughout adulthood. The FCWG brings together foundation leaders with a shared interest in preparing youth in foster care for their transition out of the child welfare system and providing them pathways to lifelong economic well-being

A Report Card for the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA): Residents' Evaluation of NYCHA and Recommendations for Improvement

From May 2010 through April 2011, members of five community organizations, CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities, Community Voices Heard (CVH), Families United for Racial and Economic Equality (FUREE), Good Old Lower East Side (GOLES), and Mothers on the Move (MOM), with support from the Community Development Project (CDP) of the Urban Justice Center, collected 1,446 report cards that asked public housing residents to "grade" the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA). Residents graded NYCHA--using a traditional letter grading scale--on management, the centralized calling center, repairs, and maintenance of buildings and developments. Public housing residents were involved in every stage of the research and participated in the development of report card questions, research findings, and policy recommendations. NYCHA received failing grades in 10 of the 26 categories

2015 Menino Survey of Mayors

The 2015 Menino Survey of Mayors represents the second nationally representative survey of American mayors released by the Boston University Initiatives on Cities. The Survey, based on interviews with 89 sitting mayors conducted in 2015, provides insight into mayoral priorities, policy views and relationships with their key partners, including other levels of government. Sitting mayors shared insight on their specific infrastructure needs and spending priorities, from roads and transit to water treatment and bike lanes, and reacted to police reforms proposed by the White House. They also shed light on the difficult choices they must often make, to promote affordable housing or improve the fiscal health of their city. A significant portion of the Survey is devoted to mayoral leadership, including areas of mayoral control and constituent approval, as well as constraints they confront under increasingly politicized and polarized state legislatures.Cit

Affordable Housing and the Conflict of Competing Goods: A Policy Dilemma

This paper, which was the keynote address at a conference on Affordable Housing and Pubic Private Partnerships at the University of Colorado Law School, is designed to point out the conflicts between various competing social “goods” in relation to the provision of affordable housing. In a world of finite resources in which competing goods cannot both be maximized at the same time, when the goods are incommensurable, how ought a society choose among them? The paper focuses on such issues as preservation of affordable housing and wealth creation; affordability and handicapped accessibility or green development. It examines various methods of societal choosing and provides a critique of each such method. It then cautions policy makers to be conscious of these incommensurable goals and to determine how to prioritize them