1. Housing Affordability and Spatial Stratification
PBAF/URBDP 560
Housing Problems
Housing’s Role (housing problems and solving social problems with housing)
Federal policy and change over time
Emerging themes
My recent research and future paths.
My goal to day is to give you a quick and dirty overview of housing problems and policy and suggest future directions for research.

2. Today Fair Housing presentation Recap discussion Housing Basics Guest:
How to undo segregation and racism?
Housing Basics
Guest:
Arthur Sullivan, Program Manager, ARCH-A Regional Coalition for Housing

3. Recap Discussion
Racism was institutionalized and systematized through federal policies ranging from home mortgages to transportation, and perpetuated even after federal discriminatory policies were dismantled.
How can we de-institutionalize it now? (Think in terms of not just anti-discrimination policy but economic strategies and the threat of gentrification).
What responsibility do the people who helped create discriminatory housing practices (policy makers, municipalities, developers, etc.) have in fixing the system? 
Powell argues that the emergence of new municipalities after WWII increased segregation and further concentrated poverty because suburban residents and municipalities were no longer responsible for sharing the burden of urban problems. Can you think of any ways that regionalism might positively impact efforts for housing integration?

4. Housing Problems? As problems of housing
Housing Policy as a way to solve societal problems
Housing Problems as problems of housing
Housing problems as societal problems

5. Housing Problems Problems of Housing Problems of Society Supply Cost
Housing cost burden
Quality
Location choice
Homeownership or rental
Homelessness
Problems of Society
Family well-being
Community vitality
Access to social & economic opportunity
National economic vitality
Race relations
Rebuilding after disaster
Homelessness
Housing Cost Burden
> 30% income
Severe burden=more than 50%
Crowding
to keep costs down
Quality/Inadequate Structures
Inadequate Plumbing
Mold
Asbestos
Lead Paint
Internal Air quality
68.9% homeownership rate nationally.

6. Housing Affordability (2009)
For a family of 4
Annual
Affordable Monthly Housing Cost (30% of Income)
Area Median Income (AMI)
$84,300
$2,108
Low Income (80% AMI)
$67,440
$1,686
Very Low Income (50% AMI)
$42,150
$1,054
Extremely Low Income (30% AMI)
$25,290
$632
Poverty Guidelines (HHS)
$22,250
$556
State Minimum Wage ($8.55/hr, 40 hrs/week, 50 weeks/yr)
$17,100
$428
Source: Washington State Housing Finance Commission ( ), US DHHS ( , Washington State ( and author calculations: ,

7. Rental housing costs? Fair Market Rent (Seattle-Bellevue MSA)
Fall 2008
2-br, 1 bath unit
Seattle Low
Rainier Valley
$ 768
Seattle High
Belltown
$1,682
Suburban Low
SeaTac
$ 870
Burien
$ 843
Suburban High
Mercer Island
$1,356
Source: Dupre+Scott
Fair Market Rent (Seattle-Bellevue MSA)
2 bedroom unit $942/month (2008) ($987 in 2009)
40th Percentile of Rental Market
Could think about housing issues as an economic and housing market problem. But that’s not the only way to think about them.
2 bedroom, 1 bath
2006: 73,700 renter hh at 30% ami but only 310 units affordable to them.
BENCHMARK REPOT

8. In 2009, a family earning minimum wage would have had to work 89 hours a week to afford a 2 bedroom apartment in King County.
Average rent of 985 in 2006
Source: Out of Reach

9. Distribution of Rental Housing

10. Spatial Variation in Housing Prices in King County, 2000 & 2005
Source: The 2001 King County Benchmarks Report
Source: King County Benchmarks, Affordable Housing, 2006

11. Discussion Questions
Mixed use developments generally costs more than traditional housing, as the regulations make loans more difficult and the housing has to be suitable for both retail and residential purposes. This often makes these developments inaccessible to lower income groups.
Despite the additional costs, mixed use developments reduce sprawl and encourage responsible transport modes. What can jurisdictions do to balance these competing goals?
The authors argue that, historically, regulation systems have not only been inequitable towards lower incomes and non- whites, but also are economically unjustified.
In a system that appears to forgo economic gain to maintain its predispositions, how can we be sure that the smart growth paradigm is not turned into yet another exclusionary tool? 
Zoning and regulations have been and still are used to exclude people of "undesirable" races and classes.
How, as advocates of equity, do we convince decision-makers to use zoning and regulation as tools of inclusion?

12. APPENDIX
Extra slides about housing issues in the Seattle Metropolitan Area and the U.S.

13. Changing Federal Housing Policy
Self-Sufficiency Family Self-Sufficiency QHWRA 1998 HOPE VI CSS PHAS SS emphasis
Poverty Dispersal Programs Housing Desegregation Lawsuits HOPE VI & Mixed-Income Hsg Scattered-Site Public Housing Vouchers MTO
Housing for Low-Income People (working poor in the 1930s, 1940s-1960s, then the very poor after 1968, either through hard units or vouchers. NOT AN ENTITLEMENT). What’s your image of public housing?
Concern for the structure
Then for the people living in it: SS—Since 20 years of SS programs
Complete change in philosophy…from needs to self-support. Workforces access, access to mainstream social insitutions, working social institutions. (UNFUNDED MANDATE)
Then for the form and location of it (much of PH problems because of location and construction and design).
Now in a state of devolution—where state and local govs playing a larger role, LITHC (administered by state housing finance agencies) and np production.
Devolution:
Larger Role of State and Local Government
Low-Income Housing Tax Credit & Non-profit Production

14. Seattle home sale prices and wages
Our Housing, Our Community.

15. Seattle Rental Market

16. Households Paying More than 30% of Income For Housing Costs: 1990-2005
Source: King County Growth Report: