This dissertation consists of three related chapters. Together they can be used to assess the effectiveness of filtering as a housing policy. The first and second chapters develops an index of affordability that takes into account the physical condition of the unit, as well as the needs and resources of the household. The third chapter identifies the factors associated with transitions. (More)

The "Section 8" Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program subsidizes the private market rents of nearly 2 million low-income households nationwide. This dissertation is a mixed-methods examination of HCV program neighborhood locations, focusing on concentration and neighborhood quality outcomes for voucher holders in 315 metropolitan areas coupled with an in-depth analysis of move preferences for a sample of voucher holders in Seattle, Washington. (More)

The purpose of this study is to examine innovations in urban design and its implications for public policy. The focus of the research is on the supply side story or urban development scenario to examine how reformist ideas such as New Urbanism are formed. (More)

Approaching the study of local brownfield decision making through a policy coalition framework, this research is based on the idea that cooperation among heretofore incompatible actors from the public and private sectors, and from cities and suburbs, is essential to produce successful redevelopment of brownfield sites. (More)

This dissertation examines the relationship between social networks and access to opportunity in scattered site and clustered public housing. Are differences in neighborhood networks associated with differences in job-finding networks? (More)

Despite the recent downturn in housing markets nationwide, housing costs remain high in many urban areas, such as New York City, Boston, San Francisco, and Washington. One key reason why affordability problems are so severe is the high cost of developing new housing in dense, built-out areas, where vacant land is relatively scarce and the cost of acquiring land right for residential development can be considerable. (More)

This dissertation provides a comparative analysis of the spatial distribution of poverty among the white and black populations of the Detroit and Pittsburgh metropolitan areas using 1990 Census data. (More)

This dissertation focuses on the effectiveness of the Empowerment Zones (EZ) initiative in the original six urban areas: Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit, New York City, and Philadelphia/Camden. Using a quantitative analysis, this study measures the impact of EZ designation on poverty, employment, and educational attainment of the residents in the six zones. (More)

This dissertation will scrutinize the formulation of policy regulating residential land and structures in early 20th century Los Angeles, then examine changes resulting to a long-ignored but critical part of its urban development—multifamily housing. Historical analysis will uncover the complex political, economic, and social problem of accommodating dense, urban rental housing in a city striving to project a distinctly suburban image of a homeowner's paradise. (More)

This dissertation will focus on social capital as a feature of neighborhoods. In general terms, social capital refers to features of social structure that facilitate the achievement of individual or collective goals (Coleman 1988). (More)

This study analyzes how state and civil society stakeholders constructed conceptions of the public good and substantive policy solutions for post-9/11 New York City. It also investigates why decisionmakers adopted some of these policy solutions and rejected others. It links the theoretical frameworks of post-catastrophe agenda setting, urban governing coalitions, and civil society to analyze how macro events, organizational arrangements and coalition building allow actors to advocate for alternatives to dominant conceptions of the public good. (More)

This dissertation has two goals. One is to contribute to the development of a location theory for business and professional services. The other is to identify strategies for economic transformation of American central cities from manufacturing to services. (More)

My dissertation aims to take a broader and more contemporary look at this phenomenon, which will hopefully reveal a more nuanced, policy-relevant account. (More)

The importance of neighborhoods in shaping residents‘ wellbeing and behavior has long been recognized by social scientists and policymakers and heated debates periodically reignite about the adequate measurement of neighborhoods. This dissertation contributes to the neighborhood effects and urban inequality literatures by moving the focus beyond the neighborhood to examine the extent to which the spatial context of the neighborhood matters for individual wellbeing. It makes the case that, independent of how we define neighborhoods, people often navigate a geographic and cultural space that cuts across neighborhood boundaries. It investigates: a) how the urban geography of inequality and cumulative spatial disadvantage shape the wellbeing of the inner-city poor; b) racial/ethnic disparities in residential mobility trajectories; and c) the extent to which space, place, collective processes, social networks, job densities and local organizations interact to affect individuals, focusing in particular on adult mental health and obesity and on youth risky behavior and delinquency. (More)

The real cost of public sports facilities is significantly higher than popularly reported, and as a result, governments and taxpayers underestimate the magnitude of their financial commitment. Specifically, land, infrastructure, the ongoing public costs associated with the operation of the facility, and forgone property taxes are routinely ignored. (More)

This thesis explores community organizing by Community Development Corporations (CDCs), the different outcomes achieved by organizing campaigns, and the factors that contribute to their successes and failures. Among organizing outcomes, I focus not only on policy victories and physical or economic improvements to communities, but also on the ways that collective action produces changes in local political institutions. (More)

The federal Housing Choice Voucher program represents the nation's predominant low-income housing strategy. The program maintains two goals: to reduce barriers for low-income households to find and lease safe, decent, and affordable housing; and to support the location decisions of assisted households with the hope that the subsidy will open up better quality communities to low-income renters. A hallmark of the program is voucher portability--the ability for assisted households to search and move nationally with their voucher. While specialized programs such as the Gautreaux Consent Decree and the Moving to Opportunity for Fair Housing demonstration program have shown the potential for residential mobility to generate positive outcomes for households moving with vouchers, the effects of mobility on outcomes for the general voucher-assisted population are not clear. This dissertation examines the dynamics of residential mobility for all voucher-assisted households in Illinois between 2000 and 2007, with the goal of understanding not only when and where such mobility resulted in positive outcomes, but also understanding the types of institutional and interpersonal relationships that create barriers and supports to successful mobility. (More)

Land-use dispersion at the metropolitan fringe combined with deepening poverty at the urban core is intensifying the division between two discrete constituencies of mass transit. Public officials may not be capable of simultaneously luring suburban commuters out of their cards while maintaining good access to dispersing metropolitan jobs and other opportunities for transit-dependent people. (More)

Social capital is defined as features of social structure such as networks, norms, and trust that facilitate individual and collective action. Participation in associations and other groups are though to foster social capital, and social capital may facilitate the exchange of resources among organizations in the pursuit of affordable housing development.

Two overarching questions are addressed in this research. The first concerns the extent to which associations and collaboratives serve as sources of social capital and facilitate access to resources and production activity. The second question concerns understanding and identifying the role of social capital in accessing and mobilizing resources to produce housing. (More)

Homeownership is a desirable goal for most Americans and is considered an integral part of the American Dream. Empirical studies indicate that homeownership has many positive outcomes. In addition, homeownership is regarded as a major means of assets accumulation. While government aims at promoting homeownership and narrowing wealth and racial inequalities, many public policies have been criticized as failing to accomplish this task. (More)

The central purpose of this research is to investigate multi-worker households' commuting and residential location choice behavior, and the constraints arising from socioeconomic and racial/ethnic backgrounds as well as exogenous employment distributions, faced by multi-worker families, especially low-income minority households in their choices of housing and residential locations. (More)

In the last 30 years, the South Bronx has transformed from a national symbol of urban crisis and dystopia to a model for new forms of urban redevelopment. But the nature of this renewal, and who it benefits, is deeply contested. Capital is returning to the South Bronx, and some claim that community-driven "renewal without displacement" is producing a new, economically diverse South Bronx. But critics point to the area's continuing poverty and racialization, and some residents fear that renewal will lead to gentrification and displacement. (More)

In this dissertation, Gundersen, uses direct measures of well-being to broaden the understanding of poverty and expand our policy prescriptions. (More)