View Research by Author - Liza Getsinger

Liza Getsinger is a Research Associate with the Urban Institute's Metropolitan Housing and Communities Policy Center. Since arriving at the Urban Institute, she has worked numerous policy topics focusing both locally in DC and in other cities and metro areas around the country. Ms. Getsinger has been part of a team of researchers evaluating the Chicago Family Case Management Demonstration, a unique partnership which is testing the impact and cost-effectiveness of intensive services for the most troubled public housing residents. She has also conducted research on neighborhood impacts on youth outcomes through the center's Program on Neighborhoods and Youth Development. Ms. Getsinger is currently working on a study examining the link between safe and stable housing and involvement in the child welfare system. Ms. Getsinger is experienced with conducting both qualitative and quantitative research studies.

Ms. Getsinger graduated in 2007 from DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois with a Bachelor of Arts in Public Policy-Urban Issues. While at DePaul, she wrote her senior thesis on the process of redevelopment and gentrification in East Garfield Park, a neighborhood on Chicago's west side.

LGetsinger@urban.org

Publications

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 Supporting Vulnerable Public Housing Families policy briefs present findings from the evaluation of the Chicago Family Case Management Demonstration, an innovative effort to test the feasibility of using public and assisted housing as a platform for providing services to vulnerable families. The Demonstration involved a unique partnership of city agencies, researchers, social service providers, and private foundations, including the Urban Institute, the Chicago Housing Authority, Heartland Human Care Services, and Housing Choice Partners. The briefs in this series describe service implementation and costs, along with participant outcomes across four domains: employment, health, housing and relocation, and children and youth.

The Chicago Family Case Management Demonstration provided vulnerable public housing residents from two Chicago Housing Authority developments with intensive case management services, transitional jobs, financial literacy training, and relocation counseling. The Demonstration was remarkably successful in implementing a wraparound service model. The lead service provider kept residents highly engaged even as they relocated with vouchers or to mixed-income housing. Participants perceived improvements in service quality and delivery, and providers felt more effective and engaged. The additional costs for the intensive services were modest, suggesting that it would be feasible to take a carefully targeted intensive service model to scale.

The Urban Institute's HOPE VI Panel Study highlighted the health crisis hidden in distressed public housing developments in Chicago and in other communities across the nation. As a result of the HOPE VI research, one key goal of the Chicago Family Case Management Demonstration was to improve participants' mental and physical health. This brief reviews the findings from the Demonstration, considers possible explanations for differences from the Panel Study, and discusses the implications for policy and practice. Participants' health did not deteriorate over time, and their anxiety levels improved. Unfortunately, rates of chronic illness and mortality remain extremely high.

By the late 1990s, the Chicago Housing Authority's troubled developments were home to thousands of vulnerable residents, many of them children. The hypothesis of the Chicago Family Case Management Demonstration was that using a family-focused approach would benefit both children and parents. While the Demonstration successfully engaged adults, there is no evidence that these benefits produced better outcomes for children and youth. Instead, the findings paint a portrait of children in crisis. This brief profiles these vulnerable children and suggests strategies for building on the successes of the Demonstration to improve the life chances of CHA's children and youth.

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.

The mortgage interest deduction (MID) is the largest single federal subsidy for owner-occupied housing, but the benefits are not evenly distributed among taxpayers. Only individuals who itemize deductions can benefit from the MID, and the value of the deduction increases with the marginal tax rate. If the government wishes to promote homeownership, a refundable tax credit available to all taxpayers would be more effective. This report presents new distributional estimates both of the current deduction's benefits by income group, family type, and race/ethnicity and of proposals to eliminate, scale back, or replace the MID with more broad-based tax incentives.

While HOPE VI has changed the face of public housing, it has not been a solution for the most vulnerable families. The Chicago Family Case Management Demonstration, an innovative model for serving these residents, provides them with intensive family case management, along with relocation, employment, financial literacy, mental health and substance use supports. This report focuses on one of the major challenges to serving vulnerable families: identifying which clients require the full intensive services. We develop a typology that provides a template for delivering wraparound services to public and assisted housing settings, including vouchers and units integrated into mixed-income developments.

This brief, a companion to the Housing in the Nation's Capital 2009 report, describes the impact of the foreclosure crisis on the Washington metropolitan region, examining the level and trends of foreclosures, outlining potential secondary effects for families and neighborhoods, and looking towards the future of the region's housing market. It concludes with policy implications in four areas: foreclosure prevention, neighborhood stabilization, recovery assistance for displaced households, and services for children in foreclosed homes.

This is the seventh in a series of annual reports about housing in the Washington metropolitan region. It assembles and analyzes the most current data on housing conditions in the District of Columbia and the surrounding suburbs. This year's report focuses on the impact of the foreclosure crisis on the region, examining the level and trends of foreclosures, outlining potential secondary effects for families and neighborhoods, and looking towards the future of the region's housing market. It concludes with policy implications in four areas: foreclosure prevention, neighborhood stabilization, recovery assistance for displaced households, and services for children in foreclosed homes.

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