On September 15, 1931, President Herbert Hoover announced his plan to hold a national conference on homebuilding and homeownership in the United States. The conference would investigate the obstacles to homeownership, according to Hoover, “with the hope of … inspiring better organization and the removal of influences which seriously limit the spread of homeownership, both town and country.” Hoover used the announcement of the President’s Conference on Home Building and Home Ownership to remind the country of the benefits of homeownership, both to communities nationwide and to the country at-large. Homeownership made for better family life, greater social stability and improved citizenship, according to the President’s announcement. (More)

The fundamental purpose of this dissertation is to address issues regarding the timing of HECM reverse mortgage terminations so as to increase investor confidence in holding this instrument in portfolio and thus expand the secondary market for them. (More)

My research includes two case studies of divergent homeless populations, both conducted in the urban and suburban surrounding of the New York metropolitan area. (More)

This exploratory study examined the application of the Transtheoretical model of behavior change to the welfare to work transition with public housing residents. (More)

This dissertation explores the impact of community culture on the success of cross-sectoral collaboratives addressing homelessness in Omaha, Nebraska, and Portland, Oregon. A comparative case study approach is used to build theory about how the environment helps to make conditions conducive or challenging to collaboration between government, business, and nonprofit organizations. The concept of community culture is operationalized by including three interrelated factors - social capital, community power, and political history - to assess two cities. (More)

This dissertation looks at the production of Low-income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC)-financed housing production in three U.S. cities, to explain the variation in the level of production and the organizational configuration of the producers by looking at relevant organizational factors and their relationship to the local political regime and the local housing market. In doing so, this project will illuminate dynamics of organizational adaptation and change, transformations in the provision of social welfare. (More)

Through a $40 million Urban Revitalization Demonstration Implementation Grant from HUD, the Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee (HACM) will revitalize Hillside Terrace, a housing project in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (More)

There are nearly 40,000 local general purpose governments and approximately 50,000 special districts in the United States. Throughout the past two decades the number of local governments has increased by only 9 percent and special districts by 14 percent. During this same period of time, however, we have witnessed the emergence and rapid proliferation of another type of local governance and service provider. Scholars have often described these entities as "private governments" (see Helsley and Strange 1998, 200a, 2000b) or micro-institutions" (Liebmann 1993, 1995; Ellickson 1998; Nelson 2006); they are exclusive in membership and possess the authority to tax their members and supplement public goods. The numbers are less definitive (as these is no Census that keeps track of their formation and existence), but estimates suggest that there were upwards of 300,000 of these organizations in the United States as of 2008, a number that has nearly doubled in the past two decades. Herein referred to as private governments, the current analysis will take a much-needed in-depth look at these organizations and how they shape outcomes for individuals, neighborhoods, and cities. (More)

Universities are increasingly involved in numerous urban development practices, including economic, community, social, knowledge-producing, and physical land development. Empirical and narrative evidence continues to be produced to describe the crucial role that universities play in the economic vitality and competitiveness of their cities. The current federal administration, private corporations, and foundations have all shown interest in such “place-based” institutions, such as universities, by funding and partnering with them to improve their communities. Thus, it is increasingly important that more precise information is collected and disseminated regarding the impact universities have on the communities they serve. (More)

This dissertation investigates the relationships between housing demand, mortgage demand, and demand for non-housing assets. (More)

This indepth study of a cohort of chronically homeless street dwellers at risk of death will assess the effectiveness of medical and substance abuse services in connecting this group to the local homeless Continuum of Care (CoC) and permanent housing. (More)

In this dissertation I explore the idea of "design" as a mechanism of aesthetic classification and control - what I call aesthetic expertise. This is to understand design not solely in terms of specialized knowledge, skill, or procedures, but as constituting relationships of power through claims to aesthetic or subjective authority. For this analysis I draw upon ethnographic fieldwork conducted among urban design faculty engaged in university-community partnerships. (More)

In recent years, communities around the United States have been faced with an obdurate problem of rising homelessness, dwindling resources, and increasing numbers of tent cities within municipal limits. In this moment of U.S. upheaval, we have a chance to rethink what home means and how local policies can better meet people’s needs of home, particularly for those considered homeless. A common thread unites all community conflicts and decisions about shelters, transitional centers, tent cities, and other institutionally created housing for the homeless—core beliefs about what “home” and “homelessness” mean. How we think about “home” and what that means for housing impacts how people without access to those dominant types of housing are conceptualized. National approaches to home have implications for all citizens, but particularly for those who find themselves unable to afford the types of accommodations associated with “home.” (More)

Scholars attest to the expanded role of the criminal justice system in the lives of the urban poor. Staggering incarceration rates coupled with recidivism approaching 70 percent, nearly 700,000 ex-offenders annually released from prisons, and millions more from jails across the country, highlight the importance of prisoner reentry for urban communities. These concerns are especially salient in Illinois, a leader in sentencing disparity and recidivism, where 80 percent of arrests were drug related and, in Cook County, the most populous and diverse region in the state, African Americans represent 80 percent of all felony convictions. Finally, the ratio of persons incarcerated to those released is 1:1, with slightly more inmates discharged than admitted, the majority returning to just 7 of 77 Chicago community areas. (More)

According to recent estimates, there are more than 75,000 homeless elders in the United States today (Cunningham and Henry, 2007). Such numbers represent the failures of the aging and homeless service systems to meet the needs of the most vulnerable older adults in our communities. Further, the housing and aging literatures have paid little attention to elder homelessness (Gonyea et al., 2010). This study addresses a critical gap by bringing forth the voices of those on the frontlines to explore how older adults experiencing homelessness and their outreach workers define and mitigate problems associated with urban elder homelessness. (More)

This doctoral dissertation analyzes the discursive constructions of community and place in Elm Valley, a multiethnic and multi-class urban neighborhood in Washington, D.C. Data include e-mails, conversation, meeting talk, ethnographic interviews, a grant proposal for public toilets, and a play about neighborhood life. (More)

This dissertation examines the potential of industry clusters as an economic development strategy for metropolitan regions and their central cities. The ultimate research question is whether or not industry clusters matter for economic development and, if so, how and why they do. (More)

During the 1990s, poverty increased significantly in U.S. suburbs; as of the year 2000 the suburbs became home to the greatest share of the poor. For the most part, what we know about suburban poverty is limited to demographic trends. This research seeks to move beyond these descriptive snapshots. Using Penn Hills, Pennsylvania, a Pittsburgh suburb, as a case-study, three primary questions guide this research:

1. How is poverty socially organized and what is everyday life like for the suburban poor?
2. How is the social and economic life of the wider community organized around poverty in the suburbs?
3. To what extent are these neighborhoods economically, politically, and socially isolated from the broader metropolitan community?

(More)

Enacted in 1992, the HOME Investment Partnership Program works towards increasing the supply of affordable housing through flexible federal housing block grants. (More)