Research by Author & Topic

Publications by Robin E. Smith on Cities and Metropolitan Regions

A central goal of U.S. social welfare policy is to ensure that all children have the opportunity to reach their full potential as productive adults. Yet it is increasingly clear that where children live plays a central role in determining their life chances. This paper provides an overview of The Urban Institute's Program on Neighborhoods and Youth Development, which is dedicated to understanding the relationships between neighborhood-level factors and the well-being and development of children and youth and identifying and evaluating place-based, community-wide strategies to help children grow up to reach their full potential as adults.

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.

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 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.