Federal Housing Subsidies: To Rent or To Own? (Article/Opportunity and Ownership Facts)Author(s): Gillian ReynoldsA family's housing can take one of two forms: renting and homeownership. Although both provide shelter, they differ significantly in their implications for asset accumulation. Direct outlays made up 87.1 percent of federal rental-assistance spending in 2006, while tax breaks provided over 98 percent of federal homeownership subsidies. This breakdown reveals that the federal government places a priority on homeownership as opposed to rental housing; however, the distribution of homeownership tax breaks suggests that they provide little benefit to low-income families.
| Posted: December 20, 2007 | Availability: HTML | PDF |
Vouchers for Housing and Child Care (Discussion Papers/Low Income Working Families)Author(s): Margery Austin Turner,
Gina Adams,
Monica Rohacek,
Lauren EysterVouchers play an important role in federal efforts to help low-income families obtain both housing and child care. These programs constitute essential components of the promise of welfare reform to encourage and support work among low-income families. And both types of vouchers have the potential to enhance long-term outcomes for children. Although federal housing and child care voucher programs differ in important respects, they also face common challenges, and innovations in one area can potentially inform efforts in the other. This brief highlights promising strategies for tackling challenges to the success of child care and housing vouchers.
| Posted: September 20, 2007 | Availability: HTML | PDF |
Promoting Homeownership among Low-Income Households (Reports/Opportunity and Ownership Project)Author(s): Edgar O. OlsenThe United States’ current system of low-income housing assistance is biased against homeownership. This paper documents the bias and suggests reforms to eliminate it. The new policies would allow more low-income families to become homeowners by providing similar subsidies for renters and owners under the two largest programs for low-income housing, Section 8 and the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit. The reforms would not require additional spending, would improve the cost-effectiveness of the system of low-income housing assistance, and would avoid the two biggest mistakes in past attempts to subsidize homeownership: subsidizing the construction of new units and requiring intended beneficiaries to buy from selected sellers.
| Posted: August 20, 2007 | Availability: HTML | PDF |
District of Columbia Housing Monitor: Spring 2007 (Series/District of Columbia Housing Monitor)Author(s): Peter A. TatianThe District of Columbia Housing Monitor provides a quarterly look at the Washington, D.C., housing market, tracking home prices, real estate listings, new construction, and affordable housing. This issue's special section examines mortgage lending trends through 2005 and highlights the declining share of low income home buyers in neighborhoods throughout the city.
| Posted: June 28, 2007 | Availability: HTML | PDF |
Promoting Neighborhood Improvement while Protecting Low-Income Families (Policy Briefs/Opportunity and Ownership Project)Author(s): Robert I. Lerman,
Signe-Mary McKernanGentrification presents a quandary for government officials and urban planners concerned about the welfare of low-income families. How can policymakers encourage development in depressed urban neighborhoods without pricing out their residents? The existing strategies—doing nothing, mandating rent control, subsidizing rental housing, decreasing barriers to building low-cost units, and promoting homeownership by low income families—are all problematic. By creating a market for rent options or insurance against rising rental costs, policymakers could preserve housing for low-income people while giving them a stake in improving their neighborhoods. Such financial instruments can also insure builders, preserving and increasing development of affordable housing.
| Posted: May 03, 2007 | Availability: HTML | PDF |
