Research by Author & Topic

Publications by Robin E. Smith on Housing

The foreclosure crisis is now having dramatic effects throughout America. In mid-2008, recognizing that this phenomenon was still quite new, the Open Society Institute asked the Urban Institute to scan available research to document what we know about: (1) the way foreclosures impact families; (2) how foreclosures affect communities; and (3) the efforts now underway, or being suggested, to address the crisis, focusing on actions at the local level. This report summarizes a longer report presenting the results of this review.

The foreclosure crisis is now having dramatic effects throughout America. In mid-2008, recognizing that this phenomenon was still quite new, the Open Society Institute asked the Urban Institute to scan available research to document what we know about: (1) the way foreclosures impact families; (2) how foreclosures affect communities; and (3) the efforts now underway, or being suggested, to address the crisis, focusing on actions at the local level. This report presents the results of this review. A final section offers the authors' recommendations on priorities for additional research to fill important gaps in the knowledge base.

Recipients of housing assistance under the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Public Housing and Housing Choice Voucher programs can keep their benefits as long as they remain income eligible and abide by program requirements. Under HUD's MTW demonstration, however, a small number of housing agencies that administer these programs chose to impose time limits on various program benefits, including housing assistance. This report documents their rationale for doing so, companion policy and programmatic changes they made in conjunction with time limits, their design decisions and implementation experiences and, to the extent knowable, effects on recipients and housing agencies.

This commentary argues that the senior population in public housing today differs from the able bodied adults living independently for whom much of the housing was built in the 1960s and 1970s. Not only are some raising minor children, others are in such poor health that they need affordable housing with an assisted living component. The author calls for housing authorities to assess the health and family status of their older adult residents and plan creative ways to meet current and anticipated housing needs.

Under the HOPE VI program, many of the most distressed public housing developments in the nation have been demolished or substantially renovated, and the program had the challenge of successfully relocating vulnerable seniors in these developments. The question of how seniors handle relocation is an important one, and prior evidence suggests poor outcomes when older adults are involuntarily moved. This brief describes the relocation experiences of older adults in light of their special circumstances, particularly health, social support and social mobility. Findings are based on survey and interview information gathered from older adults in HOPE VI developments in five cities (Atlantic City, NJ; Chicago, IL; Durham, NC; Richmond, CA; and Washington, D.C.).

The Moving to Work (MTW) demonstration was launched by HUD in the late 1990s to permit a small number of local and state housing agencies (HAs) to experiment with limited deregulation. This demonstration was not designed with the rigorous controls or monitoring that would be required to definitively measure impacts, but it does provide valuable insights on the types of changes HAs make in response to regulatory flexibility, the implementation challenges they face, and implications for ongoing policy discussions about federal housing policy.

This study, Housing Choice for HOPE VI Relocatees, highlights the housing choices made by former residents in four cities (Baltimore, MD; Louisville, KY; San Antonio, TX; and Seattle, WA) who used housing vouchers to move from developments reconstructed under the HOPE VI program. The issues addressed in this study include: decision-making strategies; search processes; neighborhood selection criteria; available housing choices; the effects of relocation on the respondents and the affected communities; and any difficulties related to the relocation experience. Focus groups were held with different segments of the relocatee respondent population at each of the four sites including persons who stayed close to their public housing developments and those who moved to neighborhoods away from their original developments. We used these focus groups to examine various aspects of the relocation process including where residents chose to live and influences and constraints on their housing choices.

This study used paired testing to measure discrimination against African Americans and Hispanics by mortgage lending institutions, mortgage brokers, real estate agents, new construction sales agents, and mobile home sales agents in Los Angeles, California and Chicago, Illinois.

This paper focuses on low-income federal housing policy and assesses the potential role and effects of current U.S. efforts on urban design, social capital, and residential mobility. Following a brief historical background, the paper identifies important concurrent policy trends likely to affect how future low-income housing will be provided. Topics discussed include concern with containing federal costs, a tendency to rely on market forces and discipline, and an interest in expanding deregulation and devolution. A description of recent federal initiatives that are more holistic in their framework than traditional federal housing programs is also included.

This report addresses how house prices affect dispersed housing subsidy program recipients who move into non-poor neighborhoods. It investigates neighborhood property price changes in two areas: (1) the section 8 certificate (including Moving to Opportunity households) program in Baltimore and (2) the scattered-site acquisition and new infill construction program of the Denver Housing Authority. The study uses a four-phase investigative strategy and covers community and policy reconnaissance, quantitative property value impact analysis, qualitative impact diagnosis, and policy implication analysis.