Academic Year 2016-17    

· Fall 2016 · 
Schwartz  ·  Tighe  ·  Crossney

"Affordable for Who?  New York City’s Affordable Housing Plan"

Alex Schwartz, PhDFriday, September 30th, 2016 • Noon to 1:15pm, 3911 Posvar Hall

Alex is a professor of Urban Policy at the New School. He is the author of Housing Policy in the United States (3rd Edition) (Routledge 2014) and Managing Editor for North America for the international journal Housing Studies.

New York City is two years into Mayor De Blasio’s ambitious housing plan. Despite its accomplishments, advocates have criticized the plan for failing to provide housing that is affordable to most residents of low-income neighborhoods, and, perversely, for aggravating the affordable housing crisis by fostering gentrification. This paper will provide an overview of the De Blasio plan, placing it in the context of the city’s previous housing programs and the city’s current housing market dynamics. It argues that the shortcomings of the plan in delivering housing affordable to low-income households highlight fundamental limitations in the ability of state and local governments to address the housing needs of low-income residents.

"Producing and Preserving Affordable Housing in Shrinking Cities"

J. Rosie Tighe, PhD

Friday, October 28th, 2016 • Noon to 1:15pm, 3911 Posvar Hall

Rosie is an assistant professor in the department of Urban Studies in the Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University. She was previously an assistant professor in the department of Geography and Planning at Appalachian State University. She holds a PhD in Community and Regional Planning from the University of Texas at Austin and a Master’s Degree in Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning from Tufts University. She has published research on affordable housing, gentrification, segregation, “shrinking” cities, as well as co-edited The Affordable Housing Reader. Dr. Tighe’s work focuses on issues related to affordable housing, social justice, and equitable development, and attempts to achieve two main goals.

The national conversation about housing affordability has not sufficiently addressed the unique needs of shrinking, or “Legacy” cities. Federal programs to combat the affordable housing challenge in the US are designed primarily to produce new housing at an affordable price. These programs have been designed to address severe affordability crises in high-growth, strong-market cities such as Boston, San Francisco, and New York. In Legacy Cities – cities that have lost population and jobs year after year since their peak in the mid-20th Century – the problem is different. Where strong-market cities require subsidies aimed at low and moderate-income households, Legacy Cities like Cleveland, Buffalo, and St. Louis have adequate supply at those affordability levels. Thus, the challenge in Legacy Cities is not necessarily one of affordability, but one of housing quality and preservation of affordability. As land banks and city agencies in declining urban areas use targeted demolition to reduce vacancy and abandonment, low-income households find the supply of quality affordable housing dwindling. This presentation explores the policy and planning tools available to “shrinking” cities as well as some creative solutions to their unique housing challenges.

"Modelling Predatory Mortgage Lending"

Kristen B. Crossney, PhD

Friday, December 2nd, 2016 • Noon to 1:15pm, 3911 Posvar Hall

Kristen has a 2006 Ph.D. in Urban Planning and Policy Development from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. She holds a Master of Arts degree in Urban Studies from Temple University, and a Bachelor of Science in Geography and Environmental Systems from the University of Maryland-Baltimore County. Dr. Crossney’s research encompasses many facets of housing and in particular, spatial patterns of predatory lending and the populations that are most at risk.