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Measuring Fidelity to HUD’s Small Area Fair Market Rents (SAFMRs) Rule: Lesson from the First Year Implementation
| Description: | The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued its final rule for the implementation of Small Area Fair Market Rents (SAFMRs) in November of 2016 (Federal Register, 2016). In August of 2017, HUD attempted to suspend the SAFMR rule, but in December of 2017 a U.S. District Court judge ordered it to be reinstated (Open Communities Alliance v. Carson, 2017). The new rule became effective in January of 2018, with implementation in mandatory areas beginning in April of 2018. There are currently 24 metropolitan areas mandated to implement SAFMRs. The adoption of SAFMRs is voluntary in all other metropolitan areas. The SAFMR rule is intended to better align the setting of payment standards for the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program with the goals of promoting residential choice and mobility. The rule is needed since the traditional method of setting payment standards based on the 40th or 50th percentile of rents in a metropolitan region (“Fair Market Rents or FMRs”) has contributed to the concentration of HCVs in low-income and minority neighborhoods. The SAFMR rule bases payment standards on average rents in ZIP codes, a geography more sensitive to rental variation across metropolitan areas. Basing payment standards on SAFMRs is argued to provide voucher holders with greater access to employment, quality schools, transportation, and other desired amenities (i.e. high-opportunity neighborhoods). SAFMRs expand access to housing in ZIP codes where average rents are higher than metropolitan FMRs. They also avoid overpaying landlords in low-rent areas like those examined by Desmond and Wilmer (2019). In this article we summarize core findings from the more detailed report we authored for PRRAC about the initial implementation of the SAFMR rule. In particular, we highlight the degree to which the setting of payment standards by public housing authorities (PHAs) falls short of aligning with SAFMR equity goals. At the end of this article, we make recommendations for future HCV program implementation where PHAs use SAFMRs. The Rationale for Small Area Fair Market Rents HUD’s new SAFMR rule was developed in response to a number of concerns about the effectiveness of the HCV program in deconcentrating poverty and providing low-income households with access to upward mobility. These concerns date back to issues raised in cases like Gautreaux v. Chicago Housing Authority (1969), Walker v. HUD (1990), and Thompson v. HUD (2005). Housing mobility programs were developed as part of the court-ordered remedies in these three cases, permitting recipients of housing vouchers to move out of segregated, high poverty neighborhoods. These programs have continued to thrive in Chicago, Dallas, and Baltimore. The development of policies scaling up these programs in other cities has become increasingly salient, since HCVs are one of HUD’s primary tools to provide affordable housing to low-income households. For example, there were over 2.2 million rental units subsidized with HCVs in 2017 (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 2017). HCV units represented over 48% of all rental units subsidized across the eight federal programs designed to subsidize rental housing. Almost 5.3 million people were housed using HCVs in 2017, comprising almost 55% of all renters receiving housing assistance across the eight federal rental subsidy programs. In addition to programs and policies adopted in response to court decisions, advocates have pressed HUD to pursue administrative rule changes to address shortcomings in HCV implementation. In particular, advocates have long been critical of how the use of metropolitan-wide FMRs, and the calculation of payment standards based on them, impede geographic mobility and housing searches in high-opportunity neighborhoods (Thrope, 2018). One of the more poignant critiques of metropolitan-wide FMRs is that they fall short of providing tenants with adequate subsidies to rent in high-opportunity neighborhoods. Researchers have identified this as problematic since metropolitan-wide FMRs, whether set at the 40th or 50th percentile rent, by definition fall below average rents in relatively high-cost submarkets in metropolitan areas (Palm, 2018; Treat, 2018; Thrope, 2018). This limitation of FMRs is compounded by data lag, since FMRs are calculated using data from the American Community Survey (ACS) which is released two years from its date of collection. One rationale for HUD allowing PHAs to set payment standards within a 90%-110% range of its published FMRs it to address some of these limitations. However, in many high-opportunity areas, the ability to set payment standards at 110% of FMRs still does not close the affordability gap. To address this issue, SAFMRs were introduced as a tool to promote housing opportunity on a metropolitan-wide scale. The first test of this tool came in 2011 as a result of a court settlement that resolved a complaint charging that payment standards based on FMRs in the Dallas metropolitan areas resulted in the concentration of vouchers in low-income areas (Ellen, 2018; Treat, 2018). Under the settlement, all PHAs in metropolitan Dallas agreed to use SAFMRs when setting payment standards. An early analysis of outcomes in Dallas suggested that the adoption of SAFMRs resulted in improved neighborhood quality for HCV recipients and modest cost savings for PHAs (Collinson & Gannong, 2014). Shortly after the Dallas settlement, HUD created its own SAFMR demonstration program. Five new PHAs along with two PHAs from the Dallas metropolitan area that were already implementing SAFMRs were included in the demonstration program. At the end of the SAFMR demonstration program, HUD released an evaluation report (Dastrup et al., 2018). The report indicated that the switch to SAFMRs made HCV holders slightly more likely to live in high-opportunity ZIP codes. The report also found that the switch to SAFMRs resulted in modest reductions in overall costs for PHAs. In November of 2016, HUD published the final version of the SAFMR rule and it began implementing it in April of 2018. At that time, PHAs in 24 metropolitan areas were mandated to adopt SAFMRs. Across those metropolitan areas, 180 PHAs administered 413,591 vouchers, which accounted for about 19% of all HUD vouchers (see Table 1). The Alignment of Payment Standards with SAFMR Goals One of our goals in this research was to assess how faithful PHAs were to the goals of the SAFMR rule in their local implementation. Under the new rule, PHAs can set payment standards between 90% and 110% of SAFMRs. In part, this range allows PHAs to account for local market conditions when adjusting payment standards. For example, in areas where fair market rents are changing rapidly and published SAFMRs are not in line with current trends, the 90%-110% range gives PHAs flexibility to address data lag issues. The 90% to 110% range also gives PHAs flexibility to pursue more aggressive strategies to expand renters’ access to high-opportunity areas, particularly if they adopted payment standards at 90% in low-rent ZIP codes and payment standards at 110% in high-rent ZIP codes. This approach to setting payment standards incentivizes moves to high-opportunity areas since it tilts the ceiling for subsidies in the manner described by Collinson and Ganong (2014). Tilting the ceiling for subsidies entails setting subsidies below FMRs in low-rent ZIP codes and setting subsidies above FMRs in high rent ZIP codes. While taking these issues into consideration, at minimum, one would expect payment standards to cluster near 100% of published SAFMRs if a PHA has fidelity to the equity goals of the new rule. Under this scenario, a PHA would strike a metropolitan-wide balance between ZIP codes where SAFMRs were less than metropolitan-wide FMRs and ZIP codes where SAFMRs were greater than metropolitan-wide FMRs. This is an important balance to strike, since it generates program cost savings in low-rent ZIP codes, removes incentives for voucher concentration in low-rent ZIP codes, and frees up resources needed to enhance HCVs in high-rent ZIP codes. Striking this balance is critical to maintaining a PHA’s volume of HCVs while expanding housing options in opportunity areas. If a PHA diverges from payment standards clustering near 100% of published SAFMRs, how payment standards are set can be viewed as an indication of relatively high or low fidelity to the new rule. In instances where there is high fidelity, a PHA would set payment standards in low-rent ZIP codes closer to 90% of SAFMRs while setting payment standards closer to 110% of SAFMRs in high-rent ZIP codes. Setting payment standards in this manner would maximize the incentive for tenants to move to high opportunity areas while reducing possible overpayments to landlords in low rent ZIP codes. In contrast, low fidelity would be most pronounced in instances where a PHA sets payment standards in low-rent ZIP codes closer to 110% of SAFMRs while setting payment standards closer to 90% of SAFMRs in high-rent ZIP codes. Set ting payment standards in this manner would minimize the incentive for tenants to move to high-opportunity areas while increasing overpayments to landlords in low-rent ZIP codes. This scenario would effectively undercut the equity goal of the SAFMR rule by bringing payment standards back in line with something approximating metropolitan-wide FMRs. Our analysis suggests that in the aggregate PHAs in the 24 metropolitan areas had low fidelity to the equity goals of the SAFMR rule. Although average payment standards hovered around 100% of published SAFMRs, there was a divergence between the setting of payment standards in low opportunity and high-opportunity areas. In low-opportunity areas, payment standards were consistently above 100% of published SAFMRs. In high-opportunity areas payment standards were consistently below 100% of published SAFMRs. This reflected the opposite pattern of setting payment standards that would be predicted if PHAs had high fidelity to the equity goals of the SAFMR rule. Setting payment standards in this manner creates disincentives for moves to high-opportunity neighborhoods and reinforces existing patterns of HCV concentration in low-opportunity areas. Moreover, setting payment standards in this manner increases the likelihood that landlords will be overpaid in low-rent areas and PHAs will forego cost-savings that can be used to enhance payment standards in high-opportunity ZIP codes. This reinforces existing geographic patterns of voucher distribution and results in the use of fewer HCVs in high-rent ZIP codes. It is important to note, of course, that there was variation in the degree to which payment standards diverged between high-opportunity and low-opportunity ZIP codes in individual metropolitan areas. There were four main trends observed at the metropolitan level. The first was in metropolitan areas where payment standards followed a similar pattern to the aggregate data reflected in Table 2, or “low fidelity” to the goals of the SAFMR rule. Eleven of the 24 metropolitan areas fell into this category. They included the following metropolitan areas: Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, Colorado Springs, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Worth-Arlington, Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, Jacksonville, Monmouth-Ocean, Pittsburgh, Sacramento-Roseville-Arden-Arcade, Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, and Urban Honolulu. The second trend in payment standards involved eight metropolitan areas where payment standards were at or above 100% of SAFMRs in both high-opportunity and low-opportunity zips codes. This trend was found in the following metropolitan areas: Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, Chicago-Joliet-Naperville, Dallas, Gary, Jackson, North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton, Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, and Washington-Arlington-Alexandria. These metropolitan areas exhibited a relatively high degree of fidelity to the equity goals of the SAFMR rule in the sense that they erred on the side of adopting payment standards that were at or higher than 100% of SAFMRs across the board. The third trend in payment standards involved five metropolitan areas where payment standards were below 100% of SAFMRs in both high-opportunity and low-opportunity zips codes. This trend was found in the following metropolitan areas: Bergen-Passaic, Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, San Antonio-New Braunfels, and San Diego-Carlsbad. These metropolitan areas exhibited a relatively low degree of fidelity to the equity goals of the SAFMR rule in the sense that they adopted payment standards that were below 100% of SAFMRs across the board. This may have the effect of encouraging the concentration of HCVs in low-opportunity areas, particularly in metropolitan areas with tightening rental markets. The Alignment of Tenant and Landlord Notification Materials with SAFMR Goals Notification materials were used in our analysis to measure how well information conveyed to tenant and landlords aligned with SAFMR goals. Tenant notification materials were provided by 22 PHAs. Landlord notification materials were provided by 12 PHAs. Findings indicated that the thrust of tenant notifications was to alert tenants about the upcoming reductions in payment standards in low rent neighborhoods, and to what extent they would be held harmless if payment standards were reduced in their area due to the adoption of SAFMRs. In addition to notifying tenants that SAFMRs were being adopted and that this may impact their level of rental assistance in the future, nine PHAs also included language explaining the equity goals of the new policy, but this type of notice appeared to be the exception rather than the rule. A good example was the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency’s notification that, “with the SAFMRs you will be able to use your voucher in more places than would have been possible before—including neighborhoods that have high-performing schools, reduced crime, access to grocery stores, parks, medical facilities, childcare, transportation, and other amenities.” The Alignment of HUD Monitoring with SAFMR Goals In addition to issues related to the setting of payment standards and notification materials, our analysis found that the implementation of the SAFMR rule was hampered by a lack of proactive monitoring by HUD. For example, PHAs are not required to submit their administrative plans, payment standards, or materials used to notify tenants and landlords about SAFMRs to HUD. Instead, they are expected to keep these records in-house and available if HUD requests to inspect them. This is problematic since there is no central repository where these materials are stored and made publically available for inspection. This impedes researchers and advocacy groups from accessing information about the implementation of the SAFMR rule and shifts the burden of public disclosure from HUD to members of the general public. The lack of a public repository for implementation materials also hinders the free flow of information between PHAs interested in identifying best practices to adopt when planning their implementation strategies. Recommendations for PHAs that use SAFMRs The successful implementation of SAFMRs hinges on the degree to which PHA administrators show fidelity to the equity goals of the SAFMR rule, and notify tenants about their new opportunities under the rule. These goals focus on setting payment standards that create incentive structures to enable moves to high-opportunity neighborhoods while removing incentives to move to or stay in low-opportunity neighborhoods. Importantly, the reduction of payment standards in low rent areas provides PHAs with the cost savings needed to pay for higher payment standards in high-rent areas. The reduction in payment standards in low rent areas also corrects for the tendency to overpay landlords when FMRs are used. In essence, payment standards based on SAFMRs bring HCV subsidies in line with market-based rents across a metropolitan area. The results presented in this article indicate that PHA administrators lack high levels of fidelity to the equity goals of the SAFMR rule. This has led to less than optimal implementation. Despite these findings, there are signs that once PHAs gain experience in the use of SAFMRs they apply the policy with greater efficacy. For example, some of the highest levels of fidelity to SAFMRs were found in the place with the most experience using them to set payment standards, the Dallas metropolitan area. Still, there is a need to fine-tune the SAFMR rule in anticipation of its use by a larger group of PHAs in the future. To this end, we offer the following three recommendations Recommendation #1: HUD must enhance its emphasis on the equity goals of SAFMRs. To foster this commitment to promoting HCV holders’ mobility, HUD must invest more resources in educating PHAs, tenants, and landlords about these goals and their relationship to the setting of payment standards in high rent and low rent areas. In addition, using SAFMRs to set payment standards that promote residential choice and mobility should be the central focus of the tenant notification process. At minimum, materials circulated during the tenant notification process should include information about the availability of housing units and quality of neighborhood amenities in high-opportunity neighborhoods. Recommendation #2: HUD must strengthen the guidelines for setting payment standards so they are in line with the equity goals of the SAFMR rule, which includes the goals of enhancing the cost-effectiveness of SAFMRs. These guidelines should be more explicit about the value of lowering payment standards over time in low-rent areas for new tenants (while holding existing tenants harmless) and to increase payment standards in high rent areas. Revised guidelines should emphasize setting payment standards in a manner that tilts the ceiling for subsidies as described by Collinson and Ganong (2014). In other words, guidelines should encourage PHAs to set subsidies at 90% of SAFMRs in low-rent ZIP codes and set subsidies at 110% of SAFMRs in high-rent ZIP codes. These types of guidelines can be reinforced with incentives to PHAs, such as awarding additional vouchers and funding for mobility counseling to authorities that adopt this strategy. Recommendation #3: HUD must increase its monitoring and reporting requirements for the implementation of the SAFMR rule. Under its current administrative practices, PHAs are not required to submit their administrative plans, payment standards, or materials used to notify tenants and landlords about their internal implementation policies related to the SAFMR rule to HUD. A central repository needs to be created where these materials are stored and made publically available for inspection. This repository can be used as a resource: by HUD when monitoring the implementation of the SAFMR rule, by researchers and advocacy groups, by PHAs interested in identifying best practices, and by the general public. |
| Authors: | Kelly L. Patterson Robert Mark Silverman |
| Publication year: | 2019 |
Small Area Fair Market Rents (SAFMRs): An analysis of the First Year Implementation in Metropolitan areas and barriers to voluntary implementation in other areas
| Description: | Kelly Patterson and Robert Silverman of the University at Buffalo have completed a review of first year implementation of the HUD Small Area Fair Market Rent rule (adopted in 2016, suspended in 2017, reinstated by litigation, and effective April 2018). One important takeaway of their survey is a troubling trend in a number of PHAs that are using their flexibility in setting “payment standards” to blunt the positive effect of the rule by raising rent caps in low income neighborhoods and lowering rent caps in higher income neighborhoods. The report also explores voluntary adoption of “SAFMRs” by looking at the potential in the Buffalo region.
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| Authors: | Kelly L. Patterson Robert Mark Silverman |
| Publication year: | 2019 |
The Impact of Single-Family Rental REITS on Regional Housing Markets: A Case Study of Nashville
Project Name: |
The Impact of Single-Family Rental REITS on Regional Housing Markets: A Case Study of Nashville |
| Description: | |
| Authors: | Ken Chilton Robert Mark Silverman Rabia Chaudhry Chihaungji Wang |
| Publication year: | 2018 |
Siting affordable housing in neighborhoods of opportunity: An assessment of HUD’s affirmatively furthering fair housing mapping tool
Project Name: |
Siting affordable housing in neighborhoods of opportunity: An assessment of HUD’s affirmatively furthering fair housing mapping tool |
| Description: | |
| Authors: | Robert Mark Silverman Li Yin Kelly L. Patterson |
| Publication year: | 2017 |
Housing abandonment and demolition: Exploring the use of micro-level and multi-year models
Project Name: |
Housing abandonment and demolition: Exploring the use of micro-level and multi-year models |
| Description: | Policies focusing on enforcing property code violations and the improvement of vacant properties are argued to be more efficacious than demolition policies to fight urban blight. This study applies parcel level data to a multi-year hybrid modeling structure. A fine-grained analysis is conducted on the dynamic patterns of abandonment and demolition for a unique period of four years before and after the City of Buffalo’s stepped-up demolition efforts. Results showed that proximity to vacant and abandoned properties, sustained over the years, had the greatest impact on the possibility of a property being abandoned. The second greatest positive impact on property abandonment was small lot front size. Results also showed that neighborhood vacancy density had the greatest negative impact on surrounding housing sales prices over the years. There was no significant impact of demolition on housing sales prices. These findings suggested that the City should aim to have more incentive programs that are tailored to control the number of vacant properties, rather than focusing primarily on demolition-oriented programs. |
| Authors: | Li Yin Robert Mark Silverman |
| Publication year: | 2015 |
Neighborhood characteristics and the location of HUD subsidized housing in shrinking cities: An analysis to inform anchor-based urban revitalization strategies
Project Name: |
Neighborhood characteristics and the location of HUD subsidized housing in shrinking cities: An analysis to inform anchor-based urban revitalization strategies |
| Description: | This article focuses on the manner in which affordable housing fits into anchor-based strategies for urban revitalization. It involves quantitative analysis of the location of existing HUD-subsidized housing in relation to neighborhood characteristics. The goal of the article is twofold. First, we examine the degree to which neighborhood characteristics associated with neighborhoods of opportunity correlate with the location of HUD-subsidized housing in shrinking cities. Second, we make recommendations for more equitable approaches to anchor-based urban revitalization. Our analysis uses a unique database developed to measure neighborhood characteristics in shrinking US cities. Our findings suggest that the location of affordable housing is not correlated with proximity to institutional and neighborhood amenities, where anchor-based revitalization is targeted. As a result, we make recommendations to link future affordable housing siting to anchor-based strategies for inner-city revitalization. |
| Authors: | Robert Mark Silverman Kelly L. Patterson Li Yin Laiyun Wu |
| Publication year: | 2015 |
Chasing a Paper Tiger: Evaluating Buffalo’s Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice
| Description: | This article focuses on a specific component of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD’s) strategy to implement a fair housing strategy, its requirements for local jurisdictions that receive community development block grant (CDBG) dollars to prepare an analysis of impediments to fair housing choice (AI) report. |
| Authors: | Robert Mark Silverman, Kelly Patterson, and Jade Lewis |
| Publication year: | 2013 |
Chasing a paper tiger: Evaluating Buffalo’s analysis of impediments to fair housing choice
Project Name: |
Chasing a paper tiger: Evaluating Buffalo’s analysis of impediments to fair housing choice |
| Description: | This article focuses on a specific component of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD’s) strategy to implement fair housing policy, its requirement for local jurisdictions that receive community development block grant (CDBG) dollars to prepare an analysis of impediments to fair housing choice (AI) report. The article’s analysis is based on an evaluation of the City of Buffalo’s 2004 AI report. The evaluation was conducted by a local fair housing organization in collaboration with university-based researchers. The findings from the evaluation revealed that the City had made little progress in implementing the action plan from its AI report over an eight year period. This was an outgrowth of local funding constraints, limited staff capacity, ambiguous HUD rules for AI reporting, and a lack of political will to pursue fair housing in Buffalo. In light of these findings, we recommend that HUD: mandate timeframes for AI implementation, require AI updates at regular intervals, and more clearly specify the format and content of AI reports. We also recommend that HUD require jurisdictions to include evaluation plans in their AI reports and measure outcomes from the implementation of AI action plans. These reforms will enhance the ability of AI reports to serve as effective planning tools for the affirmative furthering of fair housing policy. |
| Authors: | Robert Mark Silverman Kelly L. Patterson Jade Lewis |
| Publication year: | 2013 |
The Four Horseman of the Fair Housing Apocalypse: A Critique of Fair Housing Policy in the USA
| Description: | This article examines US fair housing policy from a critical perspective. |
| Authors: | Robert Mark Silverman, and Kelly L. Patterson |
| Publication year: | 2012 |
Dawn of the Dead City: An Exploratory Analysis of Vacant Addresses in Buffalo, NY 2008-2010
| Description: | This article examines residential vacancy patterns in Buffalo, NY, using data from a unique data set. |
| Authors: | Li Yin, Robert Mark Silverman, and Kelly Patterson |
| Publication year: | 2012 |
The Historic Roots of the Crisis in Housing Affordability: The Case of Buffalo, New York, 1920-1950
Project Name: |
The Historic Roots of the Crisis in Housing Affordability: The Case of Buffalo, New York, 1920-1950 |
| Description: | |
| Authors: | Henry Louis Taylor, Jr. |
| Publication year: | 2011 |
A Case for Expanding Nonprofit Activities in Affordable Housing: An Analysis of Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Outcomes 1987-2006
| Description: | This article compares nonprofit outcomes in the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program to outcomes in the private and public sector. |
| Authors: | Robert Mark Silverman and Kelly Patterson |
| Publication year: | 2011 |
How local public administrators, nonprofit providers, and elected officials perceive impediments to fair housing in the suburbs: an analysis of Erie County, New York
| Description: | This article examines how local public officials, nonprofit providers, and elected officials in the suburbs of Erie County, NY perceive impediments to fair housing. |
| Authors: | Robert Mark Silverman and Kelly Patterson |
| Publication year: | 2011 |
Non-Married Women and Black Ethnicity: An Analysis of the Likelihood of Homeownership
| Description: | The number of non-married women is on the rise in America and these women are making their presence known, especially where homeownership is concerned. Non-married women are among the fastest growing segment of first time home buyers. Despite these recent trends, few studies have examined the determinants of homeownership for this group. For the few studies that have not ignored this population, most examine differences between non-married Black and White females, but most do not address within group differences. The present study uses data from the 2000 decennial census to determine if ethnicity matters for non-married Black women. The results show that ethnicity explains some, but not all, of the variations of homeownership for non-married Black women |
| Authors: | Lori Martin |
| Publication year: | 2010 |
The Establishment of the Buffalo Municipal Housing Section 3 Employment and Business Development Center
Project Name: |
The Establishment of the Buffalo Municipal Housing Section 3 Employment and Business Development Center |
| Description: | This concept paper outlines a strategy to use the HUD Section 3 Act to “capture” business development and employment opportunities to |
| Authors: | Henry Louis Taylor Jr |
| Publication year: | 2010 |
Perceptions of Nonprofit Funding Decisions: A Survey of Local Public Administrators and Executive Directors of Community-Based Housing Organizations
| Description: | This article compares how local public administrators and executive directors of community-based housing organizations (CBHO) perceive nonprofit funding decisions. |
| Authors: | Robert Mark Silverman |
| Publication year: | 2009 |
Nonprofit perceptions of local government performance in affordable housing
| Description: | The purpose of this paper is to examine how executive directors of nonprofit organizations perceive local government performance in affordable housing. It builds on a larger body of research concerning the affordable housing activities of government and community-based nonprofit housing organizations at the local level. |
| Authors: | Robert Mark Silverman |
| Publication year: | 2009 |
CBOs and Affordable Housing
| Description: | Since the late 1960s, community based organizations (CBSs) have become increasingly responsible for implementing affordable housing policy. Scholars have referred to this process ass the non-profitization and devolution. |
| Authors: | Robert Mark Silverman |
| Publication year: | 2008 |
The Influence of Nonprofit Networks on Local Affordable Housing Funding
| Description: | This article examines public administrators’ perceptions on the effects of non-profit networks on local affordable housing activities of community-based organizations (CBSs). |
| Authors: | Robert Mark Silverman |
| Publication year: | 2008 |
Cashing in on the American Dream: Racial Differences in Housing Values 1970–2000
| Description: | Home ownership represents much more than shelter; home ownership is also indicative of an individual’s or a group’s social and economic standing. Racial and ethnic differences have been observed not only in home ownership but also in housing values. The present study examines the extent to which differences in housing values between Asians, blacks, Hispanics and whites, and among black ethnic groups, can be attributed to race and ethnicity or to other sociological factors such as age, gender, marital status, region, occupational score, nativity, year of immigration and English proficiency. Changes in the determinants of housing values between 1970 and 2000 are assessed over time as well as changes in the level of inequality on housing values between whites and non‐whites. The findings reveal that the housing gap between whites and non‐whites over the past few decades has actually grown over time. As home values make up the largest component of the average American’s portfolio, these findings may be significant in understanding and explaining the persistence of the racial wealth gap in America. |
| Authors: | Lori Martin |
| Publication year: | 2008 |
Mortgage Lending Disparities in Metropolitan Buffalo: Implications for Community Reinvestment Policy
| Description: | This article examines patterns of mortgage lending in metropolitan Buffalo, New York. |
| Authors: | Robert Mark Silverman |
| Publication year: | 2008 |
Building a Better Neighborhood Housing Partnership
| Description: | Prior research has examined the role of intermediary organizations in affordable housing development and community-based housing organization (CBHO) capacity building. This article builds on this work by examining an applied research project aimed at assessing the feasibility of creating a neighborhood housing partnership (NHP) organization in Buffalo, New York. |
| Authors: | Robert Mark Silverman and Kelly Patterson |
| Publication year: | 2007 |
Redlining in a Majority Black City?: Mortgage Lending and the Racial Composition of Detroit Neighborhoods
| Description: | This article examines the effects of population and housing characteristics on mortgage lending patterns in the City of Detroit. |
| Authors: | Robert Mark Silverman |
| Publication year: | 2005 |
Fruit Belt Redevelopment Plan: Preliminary Study
Project Name: |
The Fruit Belt Redevelopment Project |
| Description: | This study follows two earlier works published by the Center for Urban Studies, The Turning Point: A Strategic Plan of Action for the Fruitbelt/Medical Corridor (March 27, 2001) and Fruit Belt/Medical Corridor Tax Increment Financing District (February 12, 2002). The original report argued that better social, economic and physical connections could be established between the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus (BNMC), a wealth generating district within the city, and the adjacent Fruit Belt residential area, one of the poorest neighborhoods in Buffalo. The study documented in this report was the first attempt to visualize the physical potential of the residential neighborhood. The work took as proceeded under the assumptions stated in the earlier reports about the amount of residential and commercial / social amenity space that could be anticipated in this redevelopment. It was viewed as an opportunity for the existing community members to make initial suggestions about development they would like to see. |
| Authors: | Center for Urban Studies Richard Milgrom |
| Publication year: | 2002 |
Is There a Suburban Market for Housing in Buffalo, New York?
| Description: | The purpose of this study is to determine if there is a suburban market for housing in buffalo; and , if such a market exists, what can the city do to capture a greater share. The ultimate goal of the study is to outline an intervention strategy that will enable the city to increase its share of the regions’s middle income housing market. |
| Publication year: | 1997 |