Individual and Neighborhood Impacts of Neighborhood Reinvestment's Homeownership Pilot Program

The benefits of owning versus renting a home have been extolled by policy makers for many years, and there is substantial recent research to support those views. Yet the research supporting these claims largely has been conducted on general samples of homeowners. Low- and moderate-income homeowners may have a different experience due to difficulties in keeping up with housing-related payments or a difference in the quality of the homes being purchased. A major objective of this report is to assess the impacts of home ownership on a sample of low- and moderate-income homebuyers.We also know very little about the experience of lower-income homebuyers after they purchase their homes. To what extent do low-income homebuyers experience unexpected costs associated with maintenance or repairs? What proportion of low-income buyers take out home equity loans and what do they use the funds for? What proportion of low-income homebuyers default on their loans? What do buyers feel are the greatest advantages and challenges to owning a home? Answers to these questions may provide insight into how prospective lower-income homebuyers can be better prepared for home ownership.The research described in this report involved a sample of persons who graduated from home-ownership classes taught by eight NeighborWorks organizations that participated in the Neighborhood Reinvestment Homeownership Pilot program. Neighborhood Reinvestment has encouraged its affiliated NeighborWorks organizations to offer services designed to increase access to home ownership among low- and moderate-income families. Building on Neighborhood Reinvestment's Campaign for Home Ownership, the Homeownership Pilot program was designed to assist low- and moderate-income households to obtain home ownership by providing them with counseling, down-payment assistance and affordable loans.This report is the third of three reports on the implementation, outcomes and impacts of the Homeownership Pilot program. The first report, entitled An Assessment of Neighborhood Reinvestment's Homeownership Pilot Program: A Preliminary Report (2000), covered the early implementation of the Pilot. The second report, entitled Supporting the American Dream of Home Ownership: An Assessment of Neighborhood Reinvestment's Homeownership Pilot Program (2002), covers the outcomes of the Homeownership Pilot, including the number of persons counseled and new homebuyers assisted. This final report was designed to:1. Assess the proportion of customers trained by NeighborWorks organizations who go on to buy homes, as well as the factors that predict who among those graduating from the homeownership training go on to buy homes and who do not.2. Assess both the social and financial impacts of buying a home on the program participants.3. Assess the postpurchase experience of low-income homebuyers.4. Assess the loan repayment experience of a sample of the affordable loans held by Neighborhood Housing Services of America (NHSA).5. Assess changes in the Pilot program target areas before, during and after the Pilot program was in effect

Supporting the American Dream of Homeownership: An Assessment of Neighborhood Reinvestment's Home Ownership Pilot Program

Based on recommendations from a group of NeighborWorks organization (NWO) directors, Neighborhood Reinvestment initiated the Campaign for Home Ownership in 1993. That campaign provided NWOs with both funding and technical assistance to expand homeownership opportunities in the communities they serve. Based on the experiences of organizations involved with that campaign, Neighborhood Reinvestment staff distilled a model homeownership assistance strategy they call Full-Cycle Lending. This model includes six components: partnership building, pre-purchase home-buyer education, flexible loan products, property services, post-purchase counseling and neighborhood impact. Based on the success of this first five-year Campaign, Neighborhood Reinvestment supported a second five-year campaign called the Campaign for Home Ownership 2002.In 1998 Congress authorized $25 million for a NeighborWorks Home Ownership Pilot program designed to leverage additional local support and test new strategies for assisting first-time home buyers. In less than four months, the Neighborhood Reinvestment Home Ownership Campaign staff developed and implemented specific program guidelines for the distribution of funds to local NWOs. These guidelines allowed NWOs great flexibility in the use of Pilot funds including using the funds for upgrading computers, hiring staff, developing marketing plans and programs, capitalizing loan funds, providing down payment assistance as well as other uses.Campaign staff developed guidelines for three funding categories, A, B, and C, designed to respond to the different needs of NWOs. Category A grants (up to$500,000) were to assist NWOs that were already assisting 30 or more home buyers a year increase the number of home buyers assisted. Category B grants (up to $500,000) were to assist NWOs that were already assisting a large number of new home buyers enhance the positive impacts of home ownership on their target areas by undertaking other neighborhood improvement activities as well as increasing the number of home buyers assisted. Category C grants (up to$50,000) were to assist NWOs that were assisting a relatively low number of new home buyers build their capacities to do so. A total of 35 Category A grants were made, nine Category B grants and 40 Category C grants.To assist Campaign and Pilot sites in achieving their goals, Neighborhood Reinvestment provides several types of technical assistance. The semi-annual Neighborhood Reinvestment Training Institute offers a variety of courses on developing homeownership promotion programs and home-owner education methods. Neighborhood Reinvestment has also developed an extensive array of marketing materials that can be used by Campaign and Pilot organizations. Finally, Neighborhood Reinvestment Campaign and field staff assist participating organizations with special challenges as they arise.This report is the second of three reports evaluating the outcomes, implementation process and impacts of the Pilot. The outcome evaluation was designed to document the results of the Pilot including the number of persons trained and/or counseled, the number of new home owners assisted, and the value of housing units purchased, built or rehabilitated with the assistance of the Pilot organizations. This evaluation is based on information provided to Neighborhood Reinvestment by participating NWOs. The process evaluation was designed to document and evaluate the efforts of Neighborhood Reinvestment and participating NWOs in planning and implementing the Pilot programs. This part of the evaluation is based on interviews conducted in two rounds of site visits to eight Category A and B Pilot programs -- once in the fall of 1999 and once in the spring and summer of 2001. Finally, the impact evaluation was designed to assess the influence of the Pilot on the participating NWOs and their clients. The evaluation is based on interviews with NWO staff and focus groups of new home owners assisted in the eight sites visited

Ocular hypertension in myopia: analysis of contrast sensitivity

Purpose: we evaluated the evolution of contrast sensitivity reduction in patients affected by ocular hypertension and glaucoma, with low to moderate myopia. We also evaluated the relationship between contrast sensitivity and mean deviation of visual field. Material and methods: 158 patients (316 eyes), aged between 38 and 57 years old, were enrolled and divided into 4 groups: emmetropes, myopes, myopes with ocular hypertension (IOP≥21 ±2 mmHg), myopes with glaucoma. All patients underwent anamnestic and complete eye evaluation, tonometric curves with Goldmann’s applanation tonometer, cup/disc ratio evaluation, gonioscopy by Goldmann’s three-mirrors lens, automated perimetry (Humphrey 30-2 full-threshold test) and contrast sensitivity evaluation by Pelli-Robson charts. A contrast sensitivity under 1,8 Logarithm of the Minimum Angle of Resolution (LogMAR) was considered abnormal. Results: contrast sensitivity was reduced in the group of myopes with ocular hypertension (1,788 LogMAR) and in the group of myopes with glaucoma (1,743 LogMAR), while it was preserved in the group of myopes (2,069 LogMAR) and in the group of emmetropes (1,990 LogMAR). We also found a strong correlation between contrast sensitivity reduction and mean deviation of visual fields in myopes with glaucoma (coefficient relation = 0.86) and in myopes with ocular hypertension (coefficient relation = 0.78). Conclusions: the contrast sensitivity assessment performed by the Pelli-Robson test should be performed in all patients with middle-grade myopia, ocular hypertension and optic disc suspected for glaucoma, as it may be useful in the early diagnosis of the disease. Introduction Contrast can be defined as the ability of the eye to discriminate differences in luminance between the stimulus and the background. The sensitivity to contrast is represented by the inverse of the minimal contrast necessary to make an object visible; the lower the contrast the greater the sensitivity, and the other way around. Contrast sensitivity is a fundamental aspect of vision together with visual acuity: the latter defines the smallest spatial detail that the subject manages to discriminate under optimal conditions, but it only provides information about the size of the stimulus that the eye is capable to perceive; instead, the evaluation of contrast sensitivity provides information not obtainable with only the measurement of visual acuity, as it establishes the minimum difference in luminance that must be present between the stimulus and its background so that the retina is adequately stimulated to perceive the stimulus itself. The clinical methods of examining contrast sensitivity (lattices, luminance gradients, variable-contrast optotypic tables and lowcontrast optotypic tables) relate the two parameters on which the ability to distinctly perceive an object depends, namely the different luminance degree of the two adjacent areas and the spatial frequency, which is linked to the size of the object. The measurement of contrast sensitivity becomes valuable in the diagnosis and follow up of some important eye conditions such as glaucoma. Studies show that contrast sensitivity can be related to data obtained with the visual perimetry, especially with the perimetric damage of the central area and of the optic nerve head

Who benefits from the "sharing" economy of Airbnb?

Sharing economy platforms have become extremely popular in the last few years, and they have changed the way in which we commute, travel, and borrow among many other activities. Despite their popularity among consumers, such companies are poorly regulated. For example, Airbnb, one of the most successful examples of sharing economy platform, is often criticized by regulators and policy makers. While, in theory, municipalities should regulate the emergence of Airbnb through evidence-based policy making, in practice, they engage in a false dichotomy: some municipalities allow the business without imposing any regulation, while others ban it altogether. That is because there is no evidence upon which to draft policies. Here we propose to gather evidence from the Web. After crawling Airbnb data for the entire city of London, we find out where and when Airbnb listings are offered and, by matching such listing information with census and hotel data, we determine the socio-economic conditions of the areas that actually benefit from the hospitality platform. The reality is more nuanced than one would expect, and it has changed over the years. Airbnb demand and offering have changed over time, and traditional regulations have not been able to respond to those changes. That is why, finally, we rely on our data analysis to envision regulations that are responsive to real-time demands, contributing to the emerging idea of “algorithmic regulation”

Analyzing and predicting the spatial penetration of Airbnb in U.S. cities

In the hospitality industry, the room and apartment sharing platform of Airbnb has been accused of unfair competition. Detractors have pointed out the chronic lack of proper legislation. Unfortunately, there is little quantitative evidence about Airbnb's spatial penetration upon which to base such a legislation. In this study, we analyze Airbnb's spatial distribution in eight U.S. urban areas, in relation to both geographic, socio-demographic, and economic information. We find that, despite being very different in terms of population composition, size, and wealth, all eight cities exhibit the same pattern: that is, areas of high Airbnb presence are those occupied by the \newpart{``talented and creative''} classes, and those that are close to city centers. This result is consistent so much so that the accuracy of predicting Airbnb's spatial penetration is as high as 0.725

Online Popularity and Topical Interests through the Lens of Instagram

Online socio-technical systems can be studied as proxy of the real world to investigate human behavior and social interactions at scale. Here we focus on Instagram, a media-sharing online platform whose popularity has been rising up to gathering hundred millions users. Instagram exhibits a mixture of features including social structure, social tagging and media sharing. The network of social interactions among users models various dynamics including follower/followee relations and users' communication by means of posts/comments. Users can upload and tag media such as photos and pictures, and they can "like" and comment each piece of information on the platform. In this work we investigate three major aspects on our Instagram dataset: (i) the structural characteristics of its network of heterogeneous interactions, to unveil the emergence of self organization and topically-induced community structure; (ii) the dynamics of content production and consumption, to understand how global trends and popular users emerge; (iii) the behavior of users labeling media with tags, to determine how they devote their attention and to explore the variety of their topical interests. Our analysis provides clues to understand human behavior dynamics on socio-technical systems, specifically users and content popularity, the mechanisms of users' interactions in online environments and how collective trends emerge from individuals' topical interests.Comment: 11 pages, 11 figures, Proceedings of ACM Hypertext 201

The Digital Life of Walkable Streets

Walkability has many health, environmental, and economic benefits. That is why web and mobile services have been offering ways of computing walkability scores of individual street segments. Those scores are generally computed from survey data and manual counting (of even trees). However, that is costly, owing to the high time, effort, and financial costs. To partly automate the computation of those scores, we explore the possibility of using the social media data of Flickr and Foursquare to automatically identify safe and walkable streets. We find that unsafe streets tend to be photographed during the day, while walkable streets are tagged with walkability-related keywords. These results open up practical opportunities (for, e.g., room booking services, urban route recommenders, and real-estate sites) and have theoretical implications for researchers who might resort to the use social media data to tackle previously unanswered questions in the area of walkability.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, Proceedings of International World Wide Web Conference (WWW 2015