Secondary Units for Whom? Assessing interventions into informal housing in San Francisco and Oakland

As San Francisco and Oakland have endured critical affordable housing crises over the last decade, both cities have observed increases of proscribed, non-permitted living arrangements. The reconfiguration of informal housing landscapes has been evident in the reliance of not only low-income and immigrant residents, but tech workers, teachers, and college students, on cheaper housing units found in converted garages, basements, and warehouses. Informal housing, operating outside the bounds of municipal zoning and land use regulations, has been an integral component of the Bay Area housing market for the last century but has emerged as an urgent public policy priority in recent years. While most municipalities have tacitly ignored such arrangements, San Francisco and Oakland have reconfigured local planning agendas to more aggressively identify and regulate informal housing units. This thesis examines how San Francisco and Oakland have attempted to intervene into informal housing markets and analyzes the efficacy of such policy approaches. I evaluate whether patterns of increased enforcement reflect the informal housing markets of these cities by conducting analyses of building permit records, code violation complaints, and rental market data. I further consider whether life-safety conditions of buildings have been improved and investigate the extent to which tenants have been impacted through interviews with tenant advocates and organizers. Finally, I draw upon extensive interviews with planners, code enforcement officers, policymakers, and tenant advocates to elucidate both the motivations and challenges of attempting to regulate informal housing. These analyses illustrate the geographies of housing informality in San Francisco and Oakland and identify uneven secondary unit policies that prioritize formalized ADU typologies over the preservation of existing informal units. While rental market, code enforcement, and building permit data reveal the prevalence of informal units across both cities, ADU development has been concentrated among higher-income property owners and remain prohibitively expensive for the moderate and low-income communities that have long relied on garage, basement, and backyard conversions

Black, Brown, and Powerful: Freedom Dreams in Unequal Cities

In April 2018, the Institute on Inequality and Democracy convened scholars, activists, policy advocates, community residents, and nonprofit workers to share and discuss research and action pertaining to processes of inequality in Los Angeles. We sought to shed light on the entangled structures of oppression, including urban displacement, housing precarity, racialized policing, criminal justice debt, forced labor, and the mass supervision and control of youth. Through keynote talks, group dialogue, and workshops, we analyzed how in Los Angeles, and elsewhere, black and brown communities face multiple forms of banishment and exploitation ranging from the criminalization of poverty to institutionalized theft.The question of racial banishment has been an important one for the Institute since its inauguration two years ago. This year though, amidst the troubled times of Trumpism, we wanted to shift our focus from banishment to freedom. In the reports that follow, you will find many examples of what Robin D.G. Kelley, a key presence at the Institute, has famously called “freedom dreams.” Located in, and thinking from South Central Los Angeles, the event’s participants provide insight into organizing frameworks and resistance strategies that challenge exclusion and refuse subordination. From tenant organizing to debtors’ unions, from underground scholars to educational reparations, visions of freedom abound. The Institute on Inequality and Democracy is convinced that university-based research can, and must, support such freedom dreams. Such partnership – between the public university and social justice movements – requires careful attention to the difficult task of decolonizing the university. This mandate is evident throughout this collection of reports. There is no easy alliance between academic power and banished communities; there is no obvious solidarity between urban plans and freedom dreams. This event was intended to be a step towards building such alliances, especially by reconstructing the curriculum and canon of knowledge

Methodologies for Housing Justice Resource Guide

This Resource Guide is the outcome of a Summer Institute on Methodologies for Housing Justice convened by the Institute on Inequality and Democracy at UCLA Luskin as part of the Housing Justice in Unequal Cities Network, which is supported by the National Science Foundation (BCS 1758774). Held in Los Angeles in August 2019, the Summer Institute brought together participants from cities around the world. As is the case with the overall scope and purpose of the Housing Justice in Unequal Cities Network, it created a shared terrain of scholarship for movement-based and university-based scholars. Dissatisfied with the canonical methods that are in use in housing studies and guided by housing justice movements that are active research communities, the Summer Institute was premised on the assertion that methodology is political. Methodology is rooted in arguments about the world and involves relations of power and knowledge. The method itself – be it countermapping or people’s diaries – does not ensure an ethics of solidarity and a purpose of justice. Such goals require methodologies for liberation. Thus, as is evident in this Resource Guide, our endeavor foregrounds innovative methods that are being used by researchers across academia and activism and explicitly situates such methods in an orientation towards housing justice

The Gift:Transforming Lives through Organ Donation

It is my great pleasure to introduce this comic. Our project originated from an honest conversation with my friend and colleague Prof Chris Murray: how to communicate complex issues surrounding the issue of organ donation? Over the last seven years I have had the honour of being an ambassador for the Organ Donation campaign by telling my son, Andrew’s, story.Through my role as an Organ Donation ambassador I meet courageous and selfless people. Some are in desperate need of hope, some are in the position to provide hope, and those who, through their professionalism and dedication, transform lives.Our sincere thanks for the support of the following organisations: University of Dundee; the NHS Blood and Transplant Specialist Nurses in Organ Donation; Dundee Comics Creative Space; Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief, and the Organ Donation Comics team. it is only through their support that this projectcame to fruition.In the following pages we share heartfelt stories and life experiences related to organ donation. By doing so we hope to bring awareness to a wider audience and prompt honest conversations about organ donation.Finally, I would like thank my sons Andrew and Stuart for warming my heart. Through tears and laughter we present to you… The Gift

Metodologías para la justicia de la vivienda: Guia de recursos

Esta Guía de Recursos es el resultado de un Instituto de Verano sobre Metodologías para la Justicia en la Vivienda convocado por el Instituto sobre Desigualdad y Democracia de UCLA Luskin como parte de la Red de Justicia en la Vivienda en Ciudades Desiguales, que es apoyada por la Fundación Nacional de Ciencias (BCS 1758774). Celebrado en Los Ángeles en agosto de 2019, el Instituto de Verano reunió a participantes de ciudades de todo el mundo. Al igual que el alcance y el propósito general de la Red de Justicia en las Ciudades Desiguales, creó un terreno compartido de para estudiosos del movimiento y académicos de universidades. Con una insatisfacción a los métodos canónicos que se utilizan en los estudios sobre la vivienda y guiado por los movimientos de justicia de la vivienda que son comunidades de investigación activa, el Instituto de verano se basó en la afirmación de que la metodología es política. La metodología se basa en argumentos sobre el mundo e implica relaciones de poder y conocimiento. El método por sí mismo -ya sea el contra ataque al mapeo o los diarios de la genteno asegura una ética de solidaridad y un propósito de justicia. Tales objetivos requieren metodologías para la liberación. Por lo tanto, como es evidente en esta Guía de Recursos, nuestro esfuerzo pone en primer plano los métodos innovadores que están siendo utilizados por los investigadores en todo el mundo académico y el activismo y sitúa explícitamente tales métodos en una orientación hacia la vivienda la justicia

Secondary Units for Whom? Assessing interventions into informal housing in San Francisco and Oakland

As San Francisco and Oakland have endured critical affordable housing crises over the last decade, both cities have observed increases of proscribed, non-permitted living arrangements. The reconfiguration of informal housing landscapes has been evident in the reliance of not only low-income and immigrant residents, but tech workers, teachers, and college students, on cheaper housing units found in converted garages, basements, and warehouses. Informal housing, operating outside the bounds of municipal zoning and land use regulations, has been an integral component of the Bay Area housing market for the last century but has emerged as an urgent public policy priority in recent years. While most municipalities have tacitly ignored such arrangements, San Francisco and Oakland have reconfigured local planning agendas to more aggressively identify and regulate informal housing units. This thesis examines how San Francisco and Oakland have attempted to intervene into informal housing markets and analyzes the efficacy of such policy approaches. I evaluate whether patterns of increased enforcement reflect the informal housing markets of these cities by conducting analyses of building permit records, code violation complaints, and rental market data. I further consider whether life-safety conditions of buildings have been improved and investigate the extent to which tenants have been impacted through interviews with tenant advocates and organizers. Finally, I draw upon extensive interviews with planners, code enforcement officers, policymakers, and tenant advocates to elucidate both the motivations and challenges of attempting to regulate informal housing. These analyses illustrate the geographies of housing informality in San Francisco and Oakland and identify uneven secondary unit policies that prioritize formalized ADU typologies over the preservation of existing informal units. While rental market, code enforcement, and building permit data reveal the prevalence of informal units across both cities, ADU development has been concentrated among higher-income property owners and remain prohibitively expensive for the moderate and low-income communities that have long relied on garage, basement, and backyard conversions

History of Environmental Justice in Memphis's Lamar Avenue Corridor

Includes Maps, Photographs, Drawings and Bibliography.Lamar Avenue in Memphis, TN serves as a hub for industry and a convergence point for air, rail and freight traffic. The presence of the Memphis International Airport, the national headquarters of Federal Express, as well as dozens of factories and industrial plants has resulted in both crippling congestion and high levels of toxic emissions. Our research has analyzed the implications of this industry on the five adjacent residential neighborhoods. In addition to designing an interactive website that allows users to explore specific factors contributing to pollution and livability, our research has also sought to contextualize the current environmental issues facing the Lamar Avenue Corridor by researching the complex history of the area. This paper explores the dynamic history of Memphis, with particular emphasis on the city's role in the civil rights and environmental justice movements

Black, Brown, and Powerful: Freedom Dreams in Unequal Cities

In April 2018, the Institute on Inequality and Democracy convened scholars, activists, policy advocates, community residents, and nonprofit workers to share and discuss research and action pertaining to processes of inequality in Los Angeles. We sought to shed light on the entangled structures of oppression, including urban displacement, housing precarity, racialized policing, criminal justice debt, forced labor, and the mass supervision and control of youth. Through keynote talks, group dialogue, and workshops, we analyzed how in Los Angeles, and elsewhere, black and brown communities face multiple forms of banishment and exploitation ranging from the criminalization of poverty to institutionalized theft.The question of racial banishment has been an important one for the Institute since its inauguration two years ago. This year though, amidst the troubled times of Trumpism, we wanted to shift our focus from banishment to freedom. In the reports that follow, you will find many examples of what Robin D.G. Kelley, a key presence at the Institute, has famously called “freedom dreams.” Located in, and thinking from South Central Los Angeles, the event’s participants provide insight into organizing frameworks and resistance strategies that challenge exclusion and refuse subordination. From tenant organizing to debtors’ unions, from underground scholars to educational reparations, visions of freedom abound. The Institute on Inequality and Democracy is convinced that university-based research can, and must, support such freedom dreams. Such partnership – between the public university and social justice movements – requires careful attention to the difficult task of decolonizing the university. This mandate is evident throughout this collection of reports. There is no easy alliance between academic power and banished communities; there is no obvious solidarity between urban plans and freedom dreams. This event was intended to be a step towards building such alliances, especially by reconstructing the curriculum and canon of knowledge

Metodologías para la justicia de la vivienda: Guia de recursos

Esta Guía de Recursos es el resultado de un Instituto de Verano sobre Metodologías para la Justicia en la Vivienda convocado por el Instituto sobre Desigualdad y Democracia de UCLA Luskin como parte de la Red de Justicia en la Vivienda en Ciudades Desiguales, que es apoyada por la Fundación Nacional de Ciencias (BCS 1758774). Celebrado en Los Ángeles en agosto de 2019, el Instituto de Verano reunió a participantes de ciudades de todo el mundo. Al igual que el alcance y el propósito general de la Red de Justicia en las Ciudades Desiguales, creó un terreno compartido de para estudiosos del movimiento y académicos de universidades. Con una insatisfacción a los métodos canónicos que se utilizan en los estudios sobre la vivienda y guiado por los movimientos de justicia de la vivienda que son comunidades de investigación activa, el Instituto de verano se basó en la afirmación de que la metodología es política. La metodología se basa en argumentos sobre el mundo e implica relaciones de poder y conocimiento. El método por sí mismo -ya sea el contra ataque al mapeo o los diarios de la genteno asegura una ética de solidaridad y un propósito de justicia. Tales objetivos requieren metodologías para la liberación. Por lo tanto, como es evidente en esta Guía de Recursos, nuestro esfuerzo pone en primer plano los métodos innovadores que están siendo utilizados por los investigadores en todo el mundo académico y el activismo y sitúa explícitamente tales métodos en una orientación hacia la vivienda la justicia