Mobilization as a Response to Risk Perceptions and Declines in Housing Values in Communities Around Superfund Sites

Author: Lucie Laurian

Dissertation School: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Abstract:

Environmental justice states that pollution should not disproportionately impact the poor and minorities, and as directed by President Clinton, federal agencies should act to reduce environmental injustice. HUD can lessen the effects of pollution on residents through housing policies. However, knowledge about how pollution impacts residents and communities, and the mechanisms through which they respond to environmental changes, lacks and hinders sound policy-making. This study seeks to fill this knowledge gap.

The goal of my dissertation is to propose and test a comprehensive theoretical framework of the determinants of individuals' responses to changing environmental conditions and to pollution-induced declines in housing values. My research focuses on communities around Superfund sites as these sites undergo clean-up. Residents living hear Superfund sites perceive environmental risks, changes in housing values, and they then evaluate the likely outcome of the clean-up operations and respond to these perceptions. As perceived environmental and economic risks affect neighborhood satisfaction, residents may modify their residential preferences and desire to leave the community, may voice their concerns by becoming involved in community mobilization efforts, or remain passive (Hirschman, 1970; Speare, 1974; Lyons and Lowery, 1989).

The key research questions are: (1) How do residents perceive the pollution problem, the changes in housing values, and the clean-up process? (2) How do residents respond to their perceptions of environmental risks and decreases in housing values? Who decides to stay and voice their dissatisfaction? Who would rather leave? And what are the individual, household, and community-level determinants of the choice of response? (3) Does the level of community mobilization increase the likelihood that residents choose the voice option?

The Study involves a survey of residents in four communities around Superfund sites. The communities are chose so that two of the four have high levels of community mobilization. I will conduct a telephone survey of a random sample of 400 households (100 in each community) who live within two miles of each site. They will be surveyed about their perceptions of environmental risk, of changes in housing values, and of the clean-up process, about their satisfaction with the neighborhood, and their responses to environmental change (as well as on their individual and household-level characteristics). Through in-depth interviews with key community actors (community leaders, members of community organizations, officials of local media and EPA officials in relation with each community), I will collect data on community-level context.

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