CHA Transformation: Children and Youth

Summarizes a study of changes in the well-being of children and youth who moved from distressed public housing to lower-poverty areas, including safety, health, and behavior, by age and gender. Makes recommendations for relocation and support services

Moving On: Benefits and Challenges of HOPE VI for Children

Examines the well-being of children in the federal HOPE VI housing program in the areas of behavior, health, and school engagement. Based on surveys of residents at five Hope VI public housing sites

Housing Choice Vouchers: How HOPE VI Families Fared in the Private Market

Examines the relocation experiences of HOPE VI housing program residents who used a voucher to find new homes, both in and out of public housing. Based on surveys of residents at five Hope VI public housing sites

Utilizing Satellite Fusion Methods to Assess Vegetation Phenology in a Semi-Arid Ecosystem

Dryland ecosystems cover over 40% of the Earth’s surface, and are highly heterogeneous systems dependent upon rainfall and temperature. Climate change and anthropogenic activities have caused considerable shifts in vegetation and fire regimes, leading to desertification, habitat loss, and the spread of invasive species. Modern public satellite imagery is unable to detect fine temporal and spatial changes that occur in drylands. These ecosystems can have rapid phenological changes, and the heterogeneity of the ground cover is unable to be identified at course pixel sizes (e.g. 250 m). We develop a system that uses data from multiple satellites to model finer data to detect phenology in a semi-arid ecosystem, a dryland ecosystem type. The first study in this thesis uses recent developments in readily available satellite imagery, coupled with new systems for large-scale data analysis. Google Earth Engine is used with the Spatial and Temporal Adaptive Reflectance Fusion Model (STARFM) to create high resolution imagery from Landsat and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). The 250 m daily MODIS data are downscaled using the 16-day, 30 m Landsat imagery resulting in daily, 30 m data. The downscaled images are used to observe vegetation phenology over the semi-arid region of the Morley Nelson Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area in Southwestern Idaho, USA. We found the fused satellite imagery has a high accuracy, with R2 ranging from 0.73 to 0.99, when comparing fusion products to the true Landsat imagery. From these data, we observed the phenology of native and invasive vegetation, which can help scientists develop models and classifications of this ecosystem. The second study in this thesis builds upon the fused satellite imagery to understand pre-and post-fire vegetation response in the same ecosystem. We investigate the phenology of five areas that burned in 2012 by using the fusion imagery (daily) to derive the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI, a measure of vegetation greenness) in areas dominated by grass (n=4) and shrub (n=1). The five areas also had a range of historical burns before 2012, and overall we investigated the phenology of these areas over a decade. This proof of concept resulted in observations of the relationship between the timing of fire and the vegetation greenness recovery. For example, we found that early and late season fires take the longest amount of time for vegetation greenness to recover, and that the number of historical fires has little impact in the vegetation greenness response if it has already burned once, and is a grass-dominated region. The greenness dynamics of the shrub-dominated study site provides insight into the potential to monitor post-fire invasion by nonnative grasses. Ultimately the systems developed in this thesis can be used to monitor semi-arid ecosystems over long-time periods at high spatial and temporal resolution

Producing early modern space and the mind in public and closet drama

The construction of space has become such a common process for modernity that its culture would argue spatial experiences as intrinsic in nature. However, it is through the consideration of the experience of space and spatial boundaries one notices the cooperative nature of space. This thesis explores the early modem constructions of space and the development of the modem idea of the mind through the closet dramas of John Milton (Samson Agonistes) and Elizabeth Cary (The Tragedy of Mariam the Fair Queen of the Jewry), and the public dramas of William Shakespeare (Measure for Measure and Julius Caesar). Our notions of public and private space require active, imaginative participation with other actors. As one studies the development of the notions of public and private spaces in Renaissance England, specifically through the genre of drama, the participatory experiences of both space and the mind are revealed

Chronic Violence: Beyond the Developments

As part of its ambitious Plan for Transformation, the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) demolished thousands of distressed public housing apartmentsin high-rises that all but defined entire neighborhoods on Chicago's South and West sides. As the CHA moved forward with the Plan, it encountered serious challengeswith resident relocation. In response to these issues and pressure from advocates and researchers, the agency established relocation and case management services for residents, first through the Service Connector and then through FamilyWorks.As it became clear that some residents would require more help than its basic programscould provide, the CHA began collaborating with the Urban Institute and two service providers to test the feasibility of a more intensive case management program. The Chicago Family Case Management Demonstration began in 2007 and provided residents from two of CHA's remaining developments with wraparound services, including case management, transitional jobs, literacy training, and relocation counseling. After five years of tracking participants, many have experienced employment and health gains, improved housing and neighborhood conditions, and reduced levels of depression, worry, and anxietyAlthough CHA families' overall quality of life has improved and the Demonstration showed promising improvements for even the highest risk adults, none of these changes appear to have affected the life trajectories for their children and youth. This brief reports the long-term outcomes for participants in the Chicago Panel Study (Panel Study) and the Chicago Case Management Demonstration (Demonstration). In each study, we asked parents about one or two "focal children" per household

Weathering the Storm: Have IDAs Helped Low-Income Homebuyers Avoid Foreclosure?

Examines the demographics of low-income families with Individual Development Accounts, matched savings accounts designed to help them save and build assets through homeownership; their loan terms; and foreclosure rates. Discusses policy implications

The CHA's Plan for Transformation: How Have Residents Fared?

Summarizes findings from studies on how relocation from distressed public housing changed former residents' quality of life, including living conditions, safety, poverty, employment, health, well-being of children, and satisfaction. Outlines implications

CHA Residents and the Plan for Transformation

This series of policy briefs presents findings from more than a decade of research on the people who lived in Chicago Housing Authority properties when the agencylaunched its Plan for Transformation in October 1999. The ongoing, multiyear effort sought to improve resident well-being by renovating or demolishing decaying public housing properties and replacing them with new, mixed-income development