View Research by Author - Ashley Williams

Ashley Williams is a research associate in the Metropolitan Housing and Communities Center at the Urban Institute. While at Urban, Williams' research has focused on a range of policy topics involving housing and economic development. She has worked on projects related to the housing market and foreclosures in the Washington D.C. region, metropolitan and neighborhood indicators, an evaluation of the New Markets Tax Credit program, and performance measurement.

Ms. Williams is also the Director of Operations of the Urban Institute Summer Academy for Public Policy Research and Analysis, a year long program of skills-building, career development, and mentoring for minority undergraduates interested in careers in public policy research.

Williams graduated with a Bachelor of Arts with Honors in Urban Studies with a concentration in neighborhoods and community development from Washington University in St. Louis. Her senior honors thesis explored income, racial and geographic trends in the subprime mortgage lending market. While in St. Louis she interned with Urban Strategies, where she conducted site interviews and researched New Market Tax Credits and transit-oriented development and. She also interned with the Center for the Study of Social Policy.

AWilliams@urban.org

Publications

This report summarizes the work of NeighborhoodInfo DC in compiling a list of residential properties potentially subject to rent control regulation in the District of Columbia under the D.C. Rent Stabilization Program. Despite its importance, at present there is no definitive list or database of properties subject to rent control. The report provides a basic overview of rent control in D.C., methods for compiling the database, basic characteristics of those properties and owners, and the limitations. Based on this work, our initial estimate is that there are currently 4,818 properties with 79,145 housing units potentially subject to rent control regulation in the city.

The Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area Foreclosure Monitor is a quarterly publication co-published by NeighborhoodInfo DC and the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. The Monitor gives a snapshot of the current impact of foreclosures on the region, as well as the broader sales market context. The technical appendix describes the methodology used to adjust the data and produce the indicators from the LPS Applied Analytics data on mortgage performance.

The 17th annual Fact Book is a comprehensive data source for indicators of child well-being in the District of Columbia. It tracks the progression of child well-being over time, as well as differences in child well-being across wards and races/ethnicities. It is organized to reflect the six citywide goals for children and youth in DC: children are ready for school; children and youth succeed in school; children and youth are healthy and practice healthy behaviors; children and youth engage in meaningful activities; children and youth live in healthy, stable, and supportive families; and all youth make a successful transition to adulthood.

Those implementing community improvement initiatives recognize that conditions in their metropolitan areas have a powerful influence on what they can accomplish at the neighborhood level. The purpose of this report is to illustrate the wide range in conditions and trends that America's metropolitan areas have experienced over the past decade to give community planners a basis for thinking about implications for their work. To ground the research, we highlight 14 metros that have been a focus for investment by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, finding that their experiences since 2000 have been strikingly diverse.

The Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area Foreclosure Monitor is a quarterly publication co-published by NeighborhoodInfo DC and the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. The Monitor gives a snapshot of the impact of foreclosures on the region, as well as broader sales market trends. Almost 149,000 households were at least 30 days late on their mortgage payments, with almost one-quarter of those already in foreclosure. While foreclosures remain a serious problem, the sales market showed signs of improvement by December 2009. The sales volume was up from the year before, and the median sales price rose 6.6% in one year to $315,000.

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