Housing

Elderly housing issues

- Elderly must compete for housing with a limited budget. - 25% of older populatin is classified as poor or near poor.

Barriers to Affordable and Supportive Housing

- Intense neighborhood opposition - Spacing requirements for group homes. - Development regulations that impose unrealistic parking requirements and unnecessary transportation impact fees.

Principal Reasons for Homelessness

- Poverty: fewer work opportunities, and decreasing welfare benefits and rental assistance. -Unemployment and underemployment. - Lack of affordable housing. - Domestic violence. -Lack of affordable healthcare. -Mental illness and substance abuse.

Housing and Community Development Act of 1977

-Created the Urban Development Action Grant (UDAG) Program - Goal was to assist distressed cities/counties through leveraging: providing limited federal funds to induce private investment. - Directed to older, delcining, economically stangnat neighborhoods. - Became centerpiece of Carter's urban initiative. - Practically killed the federal funding of local comprehensive plans that were established by Section 701 of 1954 Housing Act.

How to develop a senior-friendly city

1. Adopt policies in economic development section of comprehensive plan 2. Make zoning code moer flexible for retirement homes. 3. higher density possoble (smaller units, less parking required)

Difference between CDBG and UDAG

1. CDBG is locally allocated. 2. UDAG grants are awarded at the central HUD office by national competition.

3 factors determine future demand for housing

1. Change in the number and composition of households. 2. Change in the number of vacant of vacant units. 3. Change in the existing supply of housing.

Housing goals implicit in most govt housing programs

1. Community life: provision and maintenance of safe, sanitary housing with community facilities to support. 2. Social and equity concerns: provide good housing at costs people can afford, without regard to race, income, religion, etc. Eliminate housing inadequacies affecting the poor, etc. 3. Stability of Production: production should be stabilized to reduce fluctuations in construction, reduce inflationary trends, etc. 4. Design and Enviro Quality: be designed to accommodate household needs, optimize the quality of life, use land efficiently, and create minimal adverse enviro impacts.

Housing and Community Development Act of 1974

1. Included Community Development Block Grants (CDBG), which replaced categorical grants-in-aid. Entitlement grant without elaborate justification. - Most of the money to go for activites benefitting low/mod income families. 2. Required Housing Assistance Plans (HAPs). 3-yeary plan with short and long-term objectives. Must include: statement of housing conditions, statement of housing needs, statement of community goals, and statement of where housing will be provided. 3. Workable Program for Community Involvement (WPCI). Required measurement criteria for determining community action. Led to increase in master plans/planning commissions. 4. Section 8. Rent supplement, which broadeded the way provate housing could be subsidized.

Tax Reform Act of 1986

1. Made rental housing less attractive as an investment and reduced the use of tax-exempt revenue bonds for financing houses. 2. Reduced tas rates make all deductions, credits, and tax shelters less valuable. 3. Investment in real estate is now less attractive because depreciation allowances are reduced, capital gains are taxed as ordinary income, and losses from passive investment are limited.

Three factors affecting acceptance of group homes

1. Nature of the facility. Larger facilities are harder because they are seen to have a greater impact on the neighborhood. 2. Nature of the population to be served. Generally, elderly are more accepted than disabled, disabled are more accepted thatn mentally ill, and mentally ill are more accepted than drug addicts/ex-offenders. 3. Nature of the community. Acceptance is usually higher in mixed-use communities and among people with fewer children who are better educated.

Ways the Fed Govt is involved in housing

1. Provides housing subsidies and community development grants. 2. Regulates private financial institutions and has established federal instruments that provide insurance, liquidity, and credit for housing. 3. Federal tax policies are a major influence on housing. 4. Civil rights legislation is the major means of addressing discrimination in housing.

Two national study groups that investigated the nation's housing in 1968

1. The President's Committee on Urban Housing (the Kaiser Committee). 2. National Commission on Urban Problems (the douglas commission)

"Old Law" New York Tenament House Law

1879. Required new tenement buildings to be dumbbell design. - Required two toilets per floor, narrow air shaft with windows, and no more than 65% land coverage. - James E Ware scheme

"New Law" New York Tenement Housing Law

1901. Required permits for construction, alteratin, conversion. Units were inspected upon completion and there were penalities for noncompliance. - Outlawed dumbbell tenements. - Became model for tenment laws throughout the US. - considered Father of modern housing codes. - Lawrence Veiller was leading reformer

Golden Triangle Project

1945 begun under the Pennsylvania Urban Redevelopment Act. - Federal urban renewal program was based on this similar state program.

Average Number of Persons per Household (1960-1990)

1960 - 3.3 1970 - 3.11 1980 - 2.75 1990 - 2.63

Model Cities Program

1966. Prototype program for attacking physical/social/economic ills in specifically selected areas. - Central city residents could set up their own programs. Programs were to be build in 3-5 years. - Theory: if you put 1 neighborhood on its feet, other will follow. - HUGE failure because of a variety of problems.

Intergovernmental Cooperation Act

1968. Helped establish a base for regional planning efforts in the US. - Required regional planning agency review of all proposals for local participation in federal development programs.

Manufactured Home Construction and Safety Standards

1976. HUD regulates manufactured homes. - These standards are commonly referred to as the HUD Code. After this, mobile homes were referred to as manufactured home.

National Affordable Housing Act of 1991

1st major housing act in a decade. -Consolidated all remaining federal housing prgrams. Included the following: 1. Comprehensive Housing Affordability Strategy (CHAS): Prereq for states to receive fed money for housing. Must include 14 elements and be certified by HUD to receive money. 2. Consolidated Plan 3. Home Investment Partnership 4. Emergency Shelter Grant 5. Housing and community development needs assessment

Household Tenure and Composition

73.8 million households that are owners and 36.1 million that are renters (2006). - About 29% reside in central cities, 49% in suburbs, and 22 percent in non-metro area. - 50% are married couple families. - Single persons represent 27% of total households. - Number of unmarried partners rose 72% between 1990 and 2000. - Number of elderly households is also growing.

Group Home

A dwelling unit occupied as a single housekeeping unit in family-like environment by up to approximately 12 to 15 persons with disabilities plus support staff. - A group home is owned or operated under the auspices of a nonprofit association, private care provider, or other legal entity. - Primary purpose is to provide a family-like setting with ongoing supervision and support for persons unable to live independently in the community. - It is NOT a clinic where treatment is the principal or essential service provide. Residency is long-term relatively permanent and measured in year, not months or weeks. - They are a residential use of land, have no effect on the value of neighboring property, have no effect on neighborhood safety, and should be scattered throughout residential districts rather than concentrated in a single neighborhood.

Consolidated Planning

A federal approach (HUD) to grant programming and assistance for the less fortunate. - Plans focus on all entitlement grants offered to a community and serve as a single grant application. - They combine the recipients Strategic Plan (describing long-term goals/objectives), Annual Plan (how money will be spent) and Consolidated Annual Performance Evaluation Report (how monies were actually spent and resulting accomplishments)

Block Grant

A large sum of money granted by the national government to a regional government with only general provisions as to the way it is to be spent. - Replaced categorical grants under Housing and Community Development Act of 1974. - An advantage of block grants is that they allow regional governments to experiment with different ways of spending money with the same goal in mind, though it is very difficult to compare the results of such spending and reach a conclusion. - A disadvantage is that the regional governments might be able to use the money if they collected it through their own taxation systems and spend it without any restrictions from above - Since the 1970s, the United States government has provided large sums of money through block grants, under a policy that has come to be known as "devolutionary" or "new federalism."

Disability

A physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of a persons major life activities, impairs their ability to live independently, or a record of having such an impairment, or being regarded as having such an impairment. - Prison parolees do not fit this description.

Halfway House or Recovery Community

A temporary residential living arrangement for persons leaving an institutional setting and in need of a supportive living arrangement in order to readjust to living outside the institution. Residents receive help for the following purposes: 1. to help recuperate from the effects of drugs or alcohol (disability); 2. to help reenter society after imprisonment; 3. to help persons that require specialized attention and care in order to achieve person independence (not a disability)

Housing Act of 1949

AKA Wagner-Ellender-Taft bill. - First comprehensive housing legislation in the US, as it was the first to set forth national housing policy. - Goal: decent home and suitable living environment for every American family. - Created urban renewal by making federal funds available to "deteriorated" areas for slum clearance and redevelopment. - Established Housing and Home Financing Agency (HHFA), which later became HUD.

Housing Act of 1937

AKA the Wagner Steagall Act. - Created the US Housing Authority (USHA). - Established public housing. - Power to loan funds to housing authorities with state enabling legislation to build low-rent, public housing and low-income housing. Stressed individual public housing is a local affair that is financed by the feds, - Set pattern of federal/local responsibilities for public housing for the next 40 years.

1982 President's Commission on Housing

Advocated: 1. A transfer of housing responsibilities to state and local governments. 2. A reliance on housing allowances instead of construction subsidies. 3. A focus on financing and regulatory problems in housing, primarily at the state and local levels.

State Government Role in Housing

Almost all states have housing finance agencies. - Many states have consumer protection and anti-discrimination laws. - Many states have building codes. - Most states regulate and/or license congregate housing and group homes.

Special use permit practices - community residences

Another common technique used to exclude community residences. - Zoning code will require a special use permit for a community residence to locate in a residential district. At a public hearing, the applicant must demonstrate that its proposed land use meets the criteria for granting a special use permit. - Often, city officials yield to objections by neighbors and reject the application even when the applicant demonstrates it meets the criteria for awarding the permit.

HOME

Authorized under the Cranston-Gonzalez National Affordable housing Act (1990). - The largest federal block grant designed exclusively to create affordable housing for low-income households. It is an annual entitlement grant program based on predetermined formula for funding distributions. - Used to fund a wide range of activities that build, buy, and/or rehabilitate affordable housing for rent or homeownership, or provide direct rental assistance to low-income people. -Recipients must match every dollar received with $0.25 from non-federal sources -At least 15% of HOME funds must be marked for use by Community Housing Development Corporation -Must be committed within 2 years and spent within 5 years.

Factors Contributing to Rise of Homelessness

Before 1980, the US didn't have widespread homelessness. The following contributed: - Deinstitutionalization between 1955- 1985 - Escalating housing costs. -accelerated loss of affordable housing stock and declining rental assistance. -Decreased availability of family support services. - Neighborhood disiventment and rise of underground markets (illegal drugs).

Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA)

Buys and holds mortgages, including conventional ones.

Government National Mortgage Association (GNMA)

Buys mortgages backed by FHA and VA insurance, pools them, and issues securities based on those mortgages.

Permanent Supportive Housing

Combines housing with intensive rehabilitation, treatment, and other social services. - Best option for chronically homeless.

Urban Development Action Grant (UDAG)

Created by Housing and Community Development Act of 1977. - Assisted distressed cities and counties through leveraging (i.e. providing limited federal funds to induce private investment in development projects- housing, commercial, industrial). - Awarded on a competitive basis. - Currently inactive, but its requirements are vital to the distribution of CDBG funds.

Public Works Administration

Created in 1934 to combat low housing development (lowest point in a century in 1933). - Initially, it was authorized to lend up to 85% of the costs of housing projects to public and private corps and housing authorities. - Allowed the first federally supported public housing to be built in 1934. - Later authorized to use eminent domain to acquire sites, and to engage directly in the construction of public housing projects.

Housing Trust Funds

Dedicated sources of revenue available to help low- and moderate-income people achieve affordable housing. - Concept emerged in early 1980s as a response to federal cuts in subsidized housing.

Cost Burden

Defined as paying more than 30% of income on housing. - A severe cost burden is paying more than 50% of income on housing. - 68% pf poorest quartile of population pays more than 30% of their income.

Commonly used legal method for opposing group homes

Definition of a family. - Zoning that limits occupancy to those related by blood, marriage, or adoption. - Supreme Court upheld this practice in Village of Belle Terre v Boraas (1974)

Housing and Transportation Affordability Index

Developed by the Brookings Institute, it is a newer measure of housing costs. - It examines a broader measures of housing affordability by looking at housing cost burden in combination with the transportation costs associated with the location of the housing. - Transportation costs can range from 10% to 25% of household expenditures. - By examining where housing is located and the associated transportation costs, it provides a better tool to evaluate housing affordability.

Standards of Housing Adequacy

Eight characteristics of housing stock that can be used to measure adequacy: - Cost: Anything higher than 30% income is a problem. - Condition: Extent to which it is a threat to safety, health, etc. - Crowding: Any unit with more than 1 person per room. - Design: Availability for Special Needs groups. - Choice: vacancy rates of various housing types. - Community facilities. - Environmental Factors: Condition of water, air, etc surrounding homes. - Control: Degree of independence, freedom provided by housing unit designs and Govt regulations.

Omnibus Budget Reconcilation Act of 1993

Empowerment zones and enterprise communities. - Authorized HUD and Dept of Ag to designate. - Remain in effect for 10 years

Housing Act of 1934

Established the Public Works Admin and the Federal Housing Authority. - Focused on providing construction jobs. Wanted to stimulate construction by establishing a program that insured private home loans, thus removing risks to bankers. - Fed govt enters the housing field. - Revolutionized home and mortgage lending industries. - FHA established minimum standards: 20% down, 20-year loans, designed to optimze resale value.

Section 8

Established under the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974. - Established a rent supplement program for low income housing. - Unique in that either all or just a few units in a rental structure could be subsidized. The subsidized units could be new, rehabilitated, or existing. -This significantly broadened the ways in which private rentals could be subsidized.

Housing Act of 1954

Extended urban renewal programs of 1949 Act to encompass rehab of deteriorating and conservation of non-deteriorating. - Stressed prevention of slums and blight. - For the first time, funds were made available to those displaced by urban renewal - Urban Renewal Admin was created within HHFA. - 3 part approach (still with us today): 1. Clearance 2. Rehab 3. Conservation - Section 701: Estab comprehensive planning grants for cities under 25,000. Created cast opportunities for planners and created private redevelopment industry.

Fastest Growing Segment of Homeless Population

Families with children. - About 36% of homeless population is composed of families with children. - About 2/3 of households (50% of people including children) are single adults.

Homeless Person

Federal law defines as: one who lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence, and has a primary night residence that is: 1. a supervised publicly or privately operated shelter. 2. An institution providing temporary residence. 3. A public or private place not designated for a regular sleeping place.

Urban Renewal

First started on the federal level in the 1949 Housing Act, and expanded in the 1954 Housing Act. - Gave money to municipalities to clear "blighted" areas and build whatever they wanted in their place. - The slum clearance projects that were associated with the federal program were very controversial. In Pittsburgh and many other cities, prosperous black neighborhoods were bulldozed and replaced by major public works or public housing projects.

Demonstation Cities and Metrolopitan Development Act of 1966

First time feds didnt dictate means of solutions to cities, and the first program specifially established for new towns. - Not federal program for local implementation, but local residents program with federal money.

Modular Housing

Form of housing that is built off-site in components or modules for later assemble on-site in accordance with locally adopted and enforced building codes.

CDBG Allocations

Funds must be allocated as follows: -At least 70% must go to help low and mod-income persons -No more than 30% may be used to prevent or eliminate slums/blight -No more than 15% may be used to support public services -No more than 20% may be used for program administration"

Categorical Grant

Grants, issued by the United States Congress, which may be spent only for narrowly-defined purposes. - Additionally, recipients of these grants are often required to match a portion of the federal funds. - Used to be the main source of federal funding, but was replaced by the Block Grant under Housing and Community Development Act of 1974

Emergency Shelter Grant (ESG)

HUD Program. - Provides basic shelter and support services to homeless people by providing assistance to the shelter operators. - It can also provide short-term homeless prevention to those about to lose their homes.

American Dream Down payment Initiative (ADDI)

HUD program created in 2003. - Created to increase the homeownership rate among minority and low-income households by offering assistance to first time homebuyers with down payments and closing costs.

Brownfields Economic Development Initiative (BEDI)

HUD program. - Competitive grant to stimulate economic development in brownfields where there is actual or potential environmental contamination.

Cost of Homelessness

Homeless people use a variety of public systems in inefficient and costly ways. Masks true cost by cost-shifting to law enforcement, health care, welfare, etc. - Use average of $40,500 in health, shelter, and correctional services (in NYC).

Housing Dynamics

Housing can be thought of as having three interrelated components: 1. Supply 2. Demand 3. Finance

Housing finance

Housing is a highly leveraged commodity due to the Housing Act of 1934 (i.e. the loan to value ratio is high). Includes: 1. Short term loans for construction; 2. Long term mortgages; 3. Mortgage insurance 4. secondary mortgage markets.

Hidden Homeless

In rural areas, homeless are more likely to live with relatives or friends in overcrowded or substandard housing, because there are few shelters. - Frequently these stays are sequential.

Factory Built Housing

Includes manufactured homes; panelized homes; and modular homes. - Comprised more than 1/3 of total new residential units in 1995. - Manufactured homes dominated the factory bult housing segment, growing from 68% in 1995 to 73% in 1999. - In 1999, 1/3 of all new single family homes sold were factory built.

Universal Design

Incorporates features that make homes adaptable to persons who require handicapped access without negatively impacting curb appeal or value. - Many features make a home more convenient and mitigate common household safety issues.

Urban Renewal Lessons Learned

Lessons include the following: - A renewal effort, in and of itself, can't stabilize neighborhoods. -S lum clearance can create new slums elsewhere. - Govt subsidies are no substitute of a strong economy. - Code enforcement is very important to preserving existing neighborhoods.

Exclusionary zoning practices - community residences

Limiting the number of unrelated individuals who can dwell together has been one of the commonly used zoning techniques to exclude these residences from single family districts. - Many zoning codes do no allow more than 5 unrelated people to live together...this is a huge issue because they often need 6+ residents to succeed therapeutically and financially.

Chronically Homeless

Long-term homelessness, frequently rotating through a community's various shelter facilities and streets. - Typically have health and substance abuse problems and extreme poverty. - Best served by permanent supportive housing

Farmers Home Administration

Major source of loans for rural housing and community development

Housing and Urban Development Act of 1965

Most comprehensive extension of federal housing/urban development since 1947 housing act. - Created the US Dept of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which superseded the old HHFA. Rober Weaver was first secretary. - Law also provided the following: 1. Rent supplement payments for those below the poverty line. 2. Private home loans at 3% interest for low and moderate families. 3. Subsidies for an additional 240,000 low-rent housing projects.

Continuum of Care

Move homeless from shelter to transitional housing to permanent housing. - Planning process mandated by HUD as a prereq to receive funds. Has helped service providers evaluate community needs, identify gaps and duplicated services, and establish local priorities for use of grant money. Remains focused on helping communities frame an effective response to homelessness, rather than preventing homelessness in the first place.

Transitionally Homeless

Move quickly through the homeless assistance system, once they are able to access it. - Their principal need is for housing. Income supports, including employment that pays a living wage is critical to keeping them housed.

Title II of ADA

Nobody with a disability can be excluded from participation in, or be denied benefits of services, programs, etc of a public entity. Olmstead v LC bans separate but equal approach to accommodating he disabled.

HOPE VI

Originally known as the Urban Revitalization Demonstration. - - Purpose is to eradicate severely distressed public housing projects by focusing on: 1. Physical improvements 2. Management improvements 3. Social and community services to address resident needs. -Can be used in conjunction with Main Street Program to develop affordable housing along a revitalized thoroughfare.

Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (FHLMC)

Packages mortgages from its member institutions and sells securities.

Housing Assistance Plan (HAP)

Part of the Housing and Community Dev Act of 1974 - Goal: to develop viable urban communities by providing decent housing and suitable environment. - In order to get block grants, the Act requires submission of 3-year development plan that includes the following: 1. ID both short and long term community dev objectives developed in accordance with areawide development planning. 2. Assess the housing assistance needs of lower-income people residing in the community in order to promote greater choice in housing opps and avoid concentration to assisted people. Result: - Ford Admin failed to implement the regional distribution requirements. - Many block grants went to entirely different purposes.

Homeless Assistance System

Principally made up of local public and private nonprofit organizations that deliver a wide range of shelter and supportive services to the homeless. - The aim of the system is to address the immediate needs of the homeless and get them off of the streets and into housing.

Youthbuild HUD program.

Program allowing non-profits to teach at-risk teens housing construction skills and complete a high school education.

Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988

Prohibited zoning regulations of community residents that are based on unfounded myths and fears about the residents, and appeared to explicitly disallow the use of special use permits as the primary means of regulating community residences. - Statute means that a city is required to bend its zoning rules to members of the protected class, many of whom need a community residence living arrangements to live outside of an institution, to establish such residences in single and multi-family zoning districts. - It also means that a city cannot impose additional barriers to community residences for people with disabilities. - Jurisdictions that already place a limit on the number of unrelated persons who can live together, can regulate community residences to an extent, if you can answer yes to all 3 of the following questions: 1. Is the proposed zoning restriction intended to achieve a legitimate government purpose? 2. Does the proposed zoning restriction actually achieve that legitimate public purpose? 3. Is the proposed zoning restriction the least drastic means necessary to achieve that legitimate govt purpose.

Housing Market Analysis

Projects the number of housing units that will be needed at some future time. - Based on studies of how many units currently exist, how many will be destroyed by time X, and the following: - change in the number and compositions of households: demographic and economic analyses and projections are used. - the change in the number of vacant units. - the change in the existing supply of housing.

Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968

Provided for the construction of 6 million subsidized housing units over 10 years. -Section 235: Authorized HUD to subsidize monthly payments for private homes financed under the FHA mortgage insurance program by low and moderate income families. - Section 236: Provided federal interest supplements for mortgages on multifamily rental and cooperative housing.

Federal Home Loan Bank

Provides credits and regulates federal savings and loan associations, which have been the principal source of mortgage credit.

Filtering

Refers to the process involving a chain of moves. - Housing trickles down id it comes available to a lower income family. 2. It trickles up if it is occupied by a higher income family.

Federal Reserve System

Regulates and provides credit to federally chartered member banks.

Local Governments and Housing

Since the Housing Act of 1937, local governments and housing authorities have borne the major responsibility for actually providing housing. - Regulate through zoning, subdivision, consumer protection, anti- discrimination, housing ordinances. - provide most of the infrastructure and services needed to build a community. - Some finance their own through federal assistance ,bonds, or appropriations.

Rent Control

Sometimes viewed as a solution to the high housing costs that can result from too few vacancies. - In practice, it can discourage the building of additional units - units that would increase the supply, provide more vacancies, and result in better housing prices.

Housing Development Grant (HoDAG) Program

Split off from UDAG program to leverage housing project exclusively. Funds were also awarded on a competitive basis.

Community Development Block Grant (CDBG)

Started under the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 - It funds local community development activities such as affordable housing, anti-poverty programs, and infrastructure development. unique community development needs. - The CDBG program provides annual grants on a formula basis to 1209 general units of local government and States. Funds must be used to meet the following objectives: -Benefit low- and mod-income persons -Prevent or eliminate slums and blight -Address community needs of urgency due to a serious and immediate threat

Housing during WWI

The US Housing Corp was charged with quickly building new units for troops. - It built 25 "new towns" - Put federal govt in the housing business. - New towns included: Seaside in Bridgeport, CT, Yorkship village in Camden, NJ

Emergency Shelter

The most immediate and basic response to homelessness, but is the least cost-effective approach to solving the need for long-term housing. - Average annual cost of $15,000 for singles and $25,000-$30,000 for families. - Far more expensive and less effective of annual rent subsidy of $4,500-$6,000 per unit

Farmworker Housing

The need for decent housing for farmworkers is a growing issue in agricultural areas. - Often have very low incomes and experience overcrowded and substandard living conditions.

Loss of Existing Low-Cost Rental Units

The stock available to low-income people is being lost to redevelopment, gentrification, and deterioration. - Net loss of about 100,000 low-cost units each year. The units are being replaced, but not a the same rate, and often enter the market at much higher rents. - Approx 200,000 subsidized units have been lost to conversion from 1996 to 2006.

Household

This is the basic unit of housing consumption. - The demand for households determines in large measure where housing units will be located in relation to population.

Ways to increase accessibility in housing units

Through visibility and universal design. As of 2004, 41 states and local jurisdictions have adopted visibility programs.

Housing Act of 1961

To insure loans by private lenders to landowners for major improvements. - Estb interest subsidy program - Became basic fed housing program of the 1960s. - Section 221(d)(3) provided interest subsidies to private nonprofit corporations, limited-dividend corporations, cooperatives, and public agencies for the construction of public housing projects for low and moderate income families to rent. - Thus, this law was the successor of the Housing Act of 1937.

Civil Rights Act of 1968

Together with US Supreme Court decision Jones v. Alfred H Mayer Co, this law made racial discrimination in the sale or rental of housing illegal in the US.

Housing Plan Elements

Typically composed of the following parts: 1. Housing market analysis 2. An identification of relevant issues 3. Gathering and analyzing data 4. Program Objectives 5. Implementation

How federal housing policy changed in 1974

Urban renewal as a separate program was ended and was combined with other development grants in the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program.

Housing demand

Usually measured by the vacancy rate: rates between 4 and 5% are healthy. -The mobility of the population is an important consideration to vacancy rates (17% moves annually, 60% stays in the same county and 80% stays in the same state- 1988). - Filtering is also important. New housing trickles down over its life span in well functioning market-becoming available to lower-income families.

Housing supply

Vast majority of housing is built by the private sector and is owner-occupied. - The fluctuation in housing production each year has a major influence on the US economy. - Despite this, a relatively small portion of housing stock is new (2% in 1983)

Housing is counter-cyclical

When the economy is booming, housing construction tends to decline; when the economy is in decline, housing construction is likely to increase before other areas of economic activity do so.