The Impact of Transit Accessibility on Residents of Affordable Housing Multifamily Apartment Complexes

A great deal of public money, time and energy have gone into the financing and construction of "affordable" multifamily housing since the Low Income Housing Tax Credit was created in 1986. By providing interest-free capital through tax credits to investors, developers can build quality housing and charge rents at the 30 percent of Area Median Income level (AMI), making these units affordable to many low-to moderate-income working families. However, there appears to be a disconnect in how states and municipalities coordinate housing policies with mobility options. Instead of looking at families in this socio-economic strata holistically (considering all of their economic and social issues), funding streams are separated into different issue areas (housing, transit, child care, employment training, welfare, etc.) managed by different divisions of planning and social services. This paper tries access how transit access impacts residents of affordable housing from an economic perspective. If financial benefits can be demonstrated, it is hoped that municipalities and transit authorities work to integrate new multifamily locations into the existing transit system. It is also hoped that the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency will add transit access in its evaluation of tax credit applications from major municipalities. These changes could help bring these two field of planning (transit and housing) closer together in recognizing common issues and concerns, particularly in serving low- to moderate-income workers in their communities.Master of City and Regional Plannin

Opportunities and Challenges of the North Carolina Planning Crisis: Why Housing Affordability and Regional Equity are Critical to Success

For much of its modern history, North Carolina and its localities have resisted a planned approach to development for fear this would conflict with economic expansion fueling the state’s growth. However, with recent economic decline in certain parts of the state and population and employment growth in others, several major deficiencies, including a shortage of affordable housing, have become utterly apparent. These conditions serve only to further highlight the need for a more integrated approach to planning. In this article, Chris Estes exposes a history of planning shortcomings regarding sustainable development practices, affordable housing, and economic equity within this state. In response, he explores the concept of Regional Equity as an effective strategy for confronting North Carolina’s impending planning crisis and dire affordable housing needs

Building Trust with Immigrant and Refugee Families: Spreading and Adapting 2Gen Working Practices

Trust between social service organizations and their clients is crucial to effectively provide services to immigrant and refugee families. Our brief on building trust with these groups explores how we can form these relationships and sustain them long-term to best serve these vulnerable communities

Better Responses to Differing Immigration Statuses: Spreading and Adapting 2Gen Working Practices

What does it take to deliver 2Gen services to families, youth, and children whose various immigrant statuses may dictate different access to benefits and make sure all family members are supported, healthy, and feel welcome and safe in their place? Our brief on immigration status examines how service organizations can provide a sense of stability and security and create a supportive environment in which immigrant and refugee communities feel safe enough to seek help around immigration statuses. When organizations are prepared for this sensitive topic, they can serve an even more valuable role in ensuring that these communities feel safe and prepared for whatever tomorrow may bring

Growing Language Skills with Immigrant and Refugee Families: Spreading and Adapting 2Gen Working Practices

What can be done to help immigrant families with the language barrier as they work on improving their language skills? This brief focuses on the linguistic challenges many face as they try to acclimate to life in the United States or abroad when their native language is no longer dominant in their surroundings. From designing ESOL programs and curricula around the needs of families to recognizing and accounting for dialects when sharing resources or providing services, we took an in-depth look at how we can help families overcome the language barrier

Cultural Competency Secrets to Success with Immigrant and Refugee Families: Spreading and Adapting 2Gen Working Practices

The cultural shift for immigrant and refugee families can be welcomed for some and terrifying for others, but what are the cultural competency secrets to success that can best support these groups? As service providers build their understanding of and responsiveness to the cultures of their newer customers, they can more equitably engage with and effectively serve them, which leads to better outcomes for immigrant and refugee families and the local communities

Hepatitis C virus infection in Argentina: Burden of chronic disease

AIM: To estimate the progression of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) epidemic and measure the burden of HCVrelated morbidity and mortality. METHODS: Age- and gender-defined cohorts were used to follow the viremic population in Argentina and estimate HCV incidence, prevalence, hepatic complications, and mortality. The relative impact of two scenarios on HCV-related outcomes was assessed: (1) increased sustained virologic response (SVR); and (2) increased SVR and treatment. RESULTS: Under scenario 1, SVR raised to 85%-95% in 2016. Compared to the base case scenario, there was a 0.3% reduction in prevalent cases and liverrelated deaths by 2030. Given low treatment rates, cases of hepatocellular carcinoma and decompensated cirrhosis decreased < 1%, in contrast to the base case in 2030. Under scenario 2, the same increases in SVR were modeled, with gradual increases in the annual diagnosed and treated populations. This scenario decreased prevalent infections 45%, liver-related deaths 55%, liver cancer cases 60%, and decompensated cirrhosis 55%, as compared to the base case by 2030. CONCLUSION: In Argentina, cases of end stage liver disease and liver-related deaths due to HCV are still growing, while its prevalence is decreasing. Increasing in SVR rates is not enough, and increasing in the number of patients diagnosed and candidates for treatment is needed to reduce the HCV disease burden. Based on this scenario, strategies to increase diagnosis and treatment uptake must be developed to reduce HCV burden in Argentina.Fil: Ridruejo, Ezequiel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Austral. Hospital Universitario Austral.; Argentina. Centro de Educaciones Médicas e Investigación Clínica "Norberto Quirno"; ArgentinaFil: Bessone, Fernando. Universidad Nacional de Rosario; ArgentinaFil: Daruich, Jorge R.. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Hospital de Clínicas General San Martín; ArgentinaFil: Estes, Chris. Center For Disease Analysis; Estados UnidosFil: Gadano, Adrián Carlos. Hospital Italiano; ArgentinaFil: Razavi, Homie. Center For Disease Analysis; Estados UnidosFil: Villamil, Federico. Hospital Británico de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Silva, Marcelo Oscar. Universidad Austral. Hospital Universitario Austral.; Argentin

The need for fresh blood: understanding organizational age inequality through a vampiric lens

YesThis article argues that older age inequality within and across working life is the result of vampiric forms and structures constitutive of contemporary organizing. Rather than assuming ageism occurs against a backdrop of neutral organizational processes and practices, the article denaturalizes (and in the process super-naturalizes) organizational orientations of ageing through three vampiric aspects: (un)dying, regeneration and neophilia. These dimensions are used to illustrate how workplace narratives and logics normalize and perpetuate the systematic denigration of the ageing organizational subject. Through our analysis it is argued that older workers are positioned as inevitable ‘sacrificial objects’ of the all-consuming immortal organization. To challenge this, the article explicitly draws on the vampire and the vampiric in literature and popular culture to consider the possibility of subverting existing notions of the ‘older worker’ in order to confront and challenge the subtle and persistent monstrous discourses that shape organizational life

The Costs of Carnivory

Mammalian carnivores fall into two broad dietary groups: smaller carnivores (<20 kg) that feed on very small prey (invertebrates and small vertebrates) and larger carnivores (>20 kg) that specialize in feeding on large vertebrates. We develop a model that predicts the mass-related energy budgets and limits of carnivore size within these groups. We show that the transition from small to large prey can be predicted by the maximization of net energy gain; larger carnivores achieve a higher net gain rate by concentrating on large prey. However, because it requires more energy to pursue and subdue large prey, this leads to a 2-fold step increase in energy expenditure, as well as increased intake. Across all species, energy expenditure and intake both follow a three-fourths scaling with body mass. However, when each dietary group is considered individually they both display a shallower scaling. This suggests that carnivores at the upper limits of each group are constrained by intake and adopt energy conserving strategies to counter this. Given predictions of expenditure and estimates of intake, we predict a maximum carnivore mass of approximately a ton, consistent with the largest extinct species. Our approach provides a framework for understanding carnivore energetics, size, and extinction dynamics

Humanity’s diverse predatory niche and its ecological consequences

Although humans have long been predators with enduring nutritive and cultural relationships with their prey, seldom have conservation ecologists considered the divergent predatory behavior of contemporary, industrialized humans. Recognizing that the number, strength and diversity of predator-prey relationships can profoundly influence biodiversity, here we analyze humanity’s modern day predatory interactions with vertebrates and estimate their ecological consequences. Analysing IUCN ‘use and trade’ data for ~47,000 species, we show that fishers, hunters and other animal collectors prey on more than a third (~15,000 species) of Earth’s vertebrates. Assessed over equivalent ranges, humans exploit up to 300 times more species than comparable non-human predators. Exploitation for the pet trade, medicine, and other uses now affects almost as many species as those targeted for food consumption, and almost 40% of exploited species are threatened by human use. Trait space analyses show that birds and mammals threatened by exploitation occupy a disproportionally large and unique region of ecological trait space, now at risk of loss. These patterns suggest far more species are subject to human-imposed ecological (e.g., landscapes of fear) and evolutionary (e.g., harvest selection) processes than previously considered. Moreover, continued overexploitation will likely bear profound consequences for biodiversity and ecosystem function