The impacts of new neighborhoods on poor families: evaluating the policy implications of the moving to opportunity demonstration

This paper was presented at the conference "Policies to Promote Affordable Housing," cosponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and New York University's Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy, February 7, 2002. It was part of Session 3: The Impact of Housing on People and Places.Housing ; Housing policy ; Poverty ; Demography

Horatio Alger: The Persistence of a Ghetto Social Welfare Institution

Despite the riots, radical movements and demands for community controls of the 1960\u27s, social scientists and social workers have noted the perserverance of many non-radical, traditional institutions in ghetto neighborhoods. Some of these institutions, like settlement houses, still advance the ideas of hard work, hoensty, competition, and individual achievement which are at the heart of the American dream. These institutions were often around long before the War on Poverty and appear likely to last long after its end. They, therefore, seem to be a reliable potential source of aid for many ghetto residents. The question at the heart of this paper is whether there is any contradiction between the more or less permanent place of social welfare institutions in a ghetto community and the goal of changing and improving that same neighborhood. How have these traditional organizations been able to survive during a period of heightened social consciousness and political action? What accommodations, if any,have they had to make? and what does this perserverance indicate about the political culture in the ghetto and the possibility of significant, even radical, change? Our answer to these issues will come from looking at the ideology, staff, budget, and Board of Trustees of one social welfare institution in New York: The Boys\u27 Club

Local affordable housing dynamics in two global cities: patterns and possible lessons?

This paper compares how New York and London, two major global cities, have developed policies and programmes to help ensure affordable housing for their citizens. It clarifies how, starting from relatively limited local regulatory powers in the nineteenth century, each city has used local resources as well as centrally authorized programmes, to create unique mixes of rental housing support, mostly based on instruments that enable sub-market rents. It goes on to discuss how the legacies arising from these interventions, both positive and negative, have influenced affordability in these cities’ current, more internationally open and generally more privatized, housing systems. The relative success of both cities has depended on the management of this pastiche of programmes and financing. Even so, while large proportions of lower income households in both cities (although larger in London) are assisted, there remains significant, and, in current economic circumstances, potentially growing numbers of households, facing unaffordable market rents. In the foreseeable future it can only be an amalgam of these local and nationally supported policies together with local initiatives that can help limit, although not resolve, the continuing problems of ensuring adequate affordable homes for lower income households in both New York and London

Horatio Alger: The Persistence of a Ghetto Social Welfare Institution

Despite the riots, radical movements and demands for community controls of the 1960\u27s, social scientists and social workers have noted the perserverance of many non-radical, traditional institutions in ghetto neighborhoods. Some of these institutions, like settlement houses, still advance the ideas of hard work, hoensty, competition, and individual achievement which are at the heart of the American dream. These institutions were often around long before the War on Poverty and appear likely to last long after its end. They, therefore, seem to be a reliable potential source of aid for many ghetto residents. The question at the heart of this paper is whether there is any contradiction between the more or less permanent place of social welfare institutions in a ghetto community and the goal of changing and improving that same neighborhood. How have these traditional organizations been able to survive during a period of heightened social consciousness and political action? What accommodations, if any,have they had to make? and what does this perserverance indicate about the political culture in the ghetto and the possibility of significant, even radical, change? Our answer to these issues will come from looking at the ideology, staff, budget, and Board of Trustees of one social welfare institution in New York: The Boys\u27 Club

The Uses and Limits of Architectural Design for Affordable Rental Housing: Case Studies of the Complexities of New York City, USA

Affordable rental housing design and architectural practices have had a limited exposure and relationship in New York. The main design choices for both planners and architects have been to forge links through sustainable design and building formats. The three cases we highlight offer insights into both the varied forms of financial and policy assistance that have been required to create more innovative designs, but to also illustrate the limits and constraints which have prevented architects and planners from playing more eminent roles in creating better housing opportunities, with more innovative designs, for lower income New Yorkers. The limits of case studies are apparent as are the limited financing options to offer hope of better, more progressive legacies in the future.La conception architecturale de logements locatifs abordables est complexe à New York. Pour les planificateurs et les architectes, les principaux choix de conception et de construction durables reposent sur diverses formes d’aide financière et politique. Les trois cas que nous présentons offrent un aperçu des éléments nécessaires pour créer des conceptions plus innovantes. Ils illustrent aussi les limites et les contraintes qui ont empêché les architectes et les planificateurs de jouer des rôles plus éminents dans la création de meilleurs logements et des formes architecturales plus innovantes, pour les New Yorkais à faible revenu

Fiscal austerity and rental housing policy in the US and UK, 2010-2016

The purpose of this paper is to compare the dynamics and initial impacts of austerity in the US and the UK (notably England) on affordable rental housing programs and housing support for low income tenants. The focus is upon budget retrenchment decisions made in the US and the UK from 2010 to 2016. The manner in which these cuts occurred, their volatility, and their effects are what drives this analysis. We seek to learn whether there have been fiscally comparable adjustments and volatility in budget decisions in the quite different contexts of the two countries and if so whether this can help us better understand the drivers and effects of change..

Adsorption of Water on Simulated Moon Dust Samples

A lunar regolith simulant dust sample (JSC-1a) supported on a silica wafer (SiO2/Si(111)) has been characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDX), and Auger electron spectroscopy (AES). The adsorption kinetics of water has been studied primarily by thermal desorption spectroscopy (TDS) and also by collecting isothermal adsorption transients. The support has been characterized by water TDS. JSC-1a consists mostly of aluminosilicate glass and other minerals containing Fe, Na, Ca, and Mg. The particle sizes span the range from a few microns up to 100 microns. At small exposures, H2O TDS is characterized by broad (100 to 450 K) structures; at large exposures distinct TDS peaks emerge that are assigned to amorphous solid water (145 K) and crystalline ice (165 K). Water dissociates on JSC-1a at small exposures but not on the bare silica support. It appears that rather porous condensed ice layers form at large exposures. At thermal impact energies, the initial adsorption probability amounts to 0.92+/-0.05

Adsorption of Water on JSC-1A Lunar Simulant Samples

Remote sensing probes sent to the moon in the 1990s indicated that water may exist in areas such as the bottoms of deep, permanently shadowed craters at the lunar poles, buried under regolith. Water is of paramount importance for any lunar exploration and colonization project which would require self-sustainable systems. Therefore, investigating the interaction of water with lunar regolith is pertinent to future exploration. The lunar environment can be approximated in ultra-high vacuum systems such as those used in thermal desorption spectroscopy (TDS). Questions about water dissociation, surface wetting, degree of crystallization, details of water-ice transitions, and cluster formation kinetics can be addressed by TDS. Lunar regolith specimens collected during the Apollo missions are still available though precious, so testing with simulant is required before applying to use lunar regolith samples. Hence, we used for these studies JSC-1a, mostly an aluminosilicate glass and basaltic material containing substantial amounts of plagioclase, some olivine and traces of other minerals. Objectives of this project include: 1) Manufacturing samples using as little raw material as possible, allowing the use of surface chemistry and kinetics tools to determine the feasibility of parallel studies on regolith, and 2) Characterizing the adsorption kinetics of water on the regolith simulant. This has implications for the probability of finding water on the moon and, if present, for recovery techniques. For condensed water films, complex TDS data were obtained containing multiple features, which are related to subtle rearrangements of the water adlayer. Results from JSC-1a TDS studies indicate: 1) Water dissociation on JSC-1a at low exposures, with features detected at temperatures as high as 450 K and 2) The formation of 3D water clusters and a rather porous condensed water film. It appears plausible that the sub- m sized particles act as nucleation centers