Strategic Action for Affordable Housing: How Advocacy Organizations Accomplish Policy Change

State retrenchment, public input requirements, and local budgetary constraints make advocacy organization’s (AO) work vital to the adoption and implementation of local plans. Yet, the strategies AOs use to influence policies have gone understudied in planning literature. The current study fills this gap through a case study of how AOs exert influence in planning for affordable housing in four cities in Los Angeles County. Data were collected through interviews (AO leaders and city officials), document review (AO materials), and content analysis of Housing Elements. The study found that the range of tactics depends on the political context and organizational resources

Advocacy in Action: Understanding the Influence of Advocacy Organizations on Local Affordable Housing Policy in the U.S.

This research examined the factors affecting city support for affordable housing. Specifically, it sought to better understand the influence of advocacy organizations on city affordable housing spending decisions (using HCD expenditures as the dependent variable)

Evaluating the Policy–Practice Gap in a Transitional Housing Program An Innovation in Process Evaluation

In the United States, in 2013, 610,042 people were estimated homeless in one night. Improving the effectiveness of homeless assistance programs, particularly aligning programs’ practices with their goals, is critical to serving this population. Using a theory that predicts homeless exits, this study presents an innovative, low-cost evaluation tool that can be used by a wide range of human service providers to conduct more frequent “in-house” process evaluations. The Gap Assessment of Policy and Practice (GAPP) tool streamlines process evaluations thus improving social programs. To test this tool’s effectiveness, we compared the results of a traditional process evaluation and a GAPP tool evaluation of a homeless assistance program. Both evaluations revealed a consistent disparity between program activities and expressed goals. The GAPP tool is less time intensive and provides a useful road map for structuring a process evaluation for program providers, thus increasing program impact by encouraging more frequent and efficient self-assessments

The Use of Social Media for Citizen Engagement: the Case of SAPAS in La Paz, Mexico

In this paper, we explore a local government water department\u27s adoption of social media to engage with citizens. Specifically, we describe the use of a Facebook page, created by the Organismo Operador Municipal del Sistema de Agua Potable, Alcantarillado, y Saneamiento (SAPAS) in La Paz, B.C. Mexico, during its initial eighteen months of operation. Based on an analysis of the page posts, we note an increase in total posts over the study period. The dominant type of post (SAPAS and citizens combined) was announcement and this type of post was unevenly distributed with peaks at the beginning and end of the study period. We also observed a notable increase in the number of complaints submitted by citizens towards the end of the study period with the highest number of complaints falling in August and October 2012. We conclude with some observations about our initial results and an update on the current status of SAPAS Facebook page

Residential Mobility of Low-Income, Subsidized Households: A Synthesis of Explanatory Frameworks

Mobility, residential quality, and life outcomes are linked in the literature and these relationships have influenced low-income housing policy. This research investigates the determinants of mobility for households with a federal housing subsidy. Combining unique data from a survey of Housing Choice Voucher households, client program files, and secondary data, this study uses logistic regression to test several explanations for mobility, including the life cycle, housing market perceptions, and perceived and actual neighborhood conditions. The results indicate that a synthesis of explanations produce the best model to predict residential mobility. Neighborhood quality, perceived and actual, variables most strongly influence mobility, but life cycle factors and perception of the local housing market also impact moving choices. At the same time, the results suggest a gap in our understanding of the relationship among individuals’ environmental perceptions, formation of feelings of neighborhood satisfaction, and actual neighborhood conditions. The article concludes with a discussion of the research and policy implications from this study

Neighborhood Concerns and Mobilization Patterns of Homeowners and Neighborhood Associations

What issues and concerns of residential community associations (RCAs) compel them to mobilize and lobby local government? Do these patterns vary by RCA type? We argue that they do, and that neighborhood associations face different concerns than homeowners associations (HOAs). We also believe neighborhood associations are more likely to mobilize and interact with municipal government on behalf of the neighborhood. Using survey and interview data of neighborhood association and HOA presidents in Tallahassee, Florida, we find that neighborhood associations mobilize and interact with municipal government to a greater extent than HOAs. The issues and concerns that compel neighborhood associations to mobilize revolve around business/residential encroachment and crime. On the contrary, when HOAs do mobilize and interact with local government, the issues deal with the typical HOA concern of improving property values

Public Housing Authorities in the Private Market

Decreasing federal resources since the 1980s, policy devolution to the local level, and expansion of market-based approaches for affordable housing delivery have resulted in public housing authorities (PHAs) evolving from public organizations to hybrid organizations that encompass public and private characteristics. Although federal rules guide their implementation of U.S. Department of Housing and Development (HUD) programs, PHAs are created locally under state authorizing legislation. Under what conditions do PHAs create new affordable housing using their ability to employ both public and private means of service delivery? Although PHAs have the ability to create new units outside the traditional assisted stock, no clear estimate of the number of units created using these newer means exists, or even a count of how many PHAs are engaging in such activities. Descriptive analysis allows for estimates of this basic information. A multivariate analysis using data from a national survey of PHAs, content analysis of state enabling legislation, and publicly available data sets suggests that whereas the local market context partially predicts affordable housing ownership outside of the public housing program, state enabling legislation and local institutional relationships also facilitate housing production. We estimate that in 2013, PHAs owned more than 150,000 units outside of the traditional HUD-assisted housing stock

Constraints And Opportunities For Innovation In The Moving To Work Demonstration Program

The Moving to Work (MTW) Demonstration Program provides participating housing agencies with additional programmatic and operational flexibility that is used to achieve Congress’s statutory goals. The MTW Demonstration Program is designed to provide agencies with the flexibility to pursue innovative activities, yet there are myriad constraints that alter the behavior of these agencies. This study uses evidence generated from interviews with personnel from MTW agencies to understand how they use MTW to address and overcome bureaucratic, resource, and market constraints to further their mission. The findings from this study enhance our understanding of MTW agencies, their decision-making, and how they innovate in a constrained environment. These results are relevant to a wide audience, including existing MTW agencies, public housing authorities that are considering MTW designation under the new expansion, housing researchers, as well as policymakers and practitioners who focus on federal housing policy and innovation in public agencies

A Story-Centered Approach to the Newspaper Coverage of High-Profile SMOs

Purpose – To theorize and research the conditions under which a high-profile social movement organization (SMO) receives newspaper coverage advantageous to it. Design/methodology approach – To explain coverage quality, including “standing” – being quoted – and “demands” – prescribing lines of action – we advance a story-centered perspective. This combines ideas about the type of article in which SMOs are embedded and political mediation ideas. We model the joint influence of article type, political contexts and “assertive” SMO action on coverage. We analyze the Townsend Plan\u27s coverage across five major national newspapers, focusing on front-page coverage from 1934 through 1952, using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analyses (fsQCA). Findings – We find that only about a third of the Townsend Plan\u27s front-page coverage was initiated by its activity and very little of it was disruptive. The fsQCA results provide support for our arguments on coverage quality. Disruptive, non-institutional action had no specific influence on standing, but its absence was a necessary condition for the SMO expressing a demand; by contrast, assertive action in combination with movement-initiated coverage or a favorable political context prompted the publication of articles with both standing and demands. Research limitations/implications – The results suggest greater attention to a wider array of SMO coverage and to the interaction between article type, SMO action, and political context in explaining the quality of coverage. However, the results are likely to apply best to high-profile SMOs. Originality/value – The paper provides a new theory of the quality of newspaper coverage and finds support for it with fsQCA modeling on newly collected data