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How Cities and States Are Fighting Gentrications

Displacement Factor
BY SANDY SMITH | NOVEMBER 18, 2014

HomeownersfacingforeclosureprotestedinPhiladelphiain2011.(APPhoto/Matt
Rourke)

n citie all acro America, neighorhood are gentrifing and riing home price and rent make
it difficult for low- and moderate-income reident to find place to live or remain in their home.
Meanwhile, in man of thee ame citie, other neighorhood remain plagued light and

aandoned propertie that could e returned to productive ue, eaing the affordailit crii at the
ame time. Government and non-profit organization have developed a variet of trategie to

preerve houing affordailit for thoe mot affected gentrification and revive ditreed
communitie. While New York Cit and San Francico k-high price mean the often get the mot
attention when it come to addreing affordale houing, here are four wa other government are
tring to enure their citie are equitale.

Penn for Affordale Houing Fund, Fairfax Count, Va.

Fairfax Count, Va., one of the mot affluent uuran juridiction in the Greater Wahington area,

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created a fund to preerve affordale houing in the count in 2006. The Penn for Affordale

Houing Fund, o named ecaue it revenue come from a one-cent hare of the count propert tax
rate, provide aitance for uilder, houehold and non-profit agencie working to create affordale
houing or provide rent uidie to lower-income familie in the count. The count goal, a laid out
in a 2010 Houing lueprint, include providing ufficient workforce houing to meet projected jo
growth and cutting the waiting lit for affordale houing half in 10 ear.

Miouri Affordale Houing Aitance Program

Thi tatewide initiative in the Show Me State offer a tax credit of up to 55 percent of the value of
donation to non-profit communit-aed organization engaged in either the production of affordale
houing or in offering aitance to thoe in need of affordale houing. The fund alo offer credit for
donation to group producing market-rate houing in ditreed communitie. The donation can take
the form of cah, financial aet, ervice, or real or peronal propert.

Longtime Owner Occupant Program (PHL Tax LOOP), Philadelphia, Pa.

The Cit of Philadelphia offer homeowner in neighorhood where riing propert value have
caued propert taxe to jump tax relief through a 10-ear reduction in propert taxe. To qualif for
the tax reak, reident mut have owned and lived in their home for at leat 10 ear. Owner of
ingle-famil home and multi-famil home with no more than three dwelling unit and one
commercial unit ma receive the dicount.

Chicago Communit Loan Fund, Chicago, Ill.

Thi non-profit organization ha a it miion the revitalization of ditreed cit neighorhood and
uuran communitie in metropolitan Chicago through low-cot financing and technical aitance to
communit organization eeking to redevelop lighted propertie. Among the loan the fund offer are
loan for pre-contruction and contruction cot for oth new development and rehailitation project,
mortgage for limited-equit and low-income houing cooperative, and loan for mall-cale
developer, oth non-profit and for-profit, to acquire, rehailitate, and run mall (one to four unit)
reidential uilding in communitie that have een hit hard forecloure.

On Decemer 3, 2014, Next Cit will hot a free event in Philadelphia, Gentrification, Integration and
quit, during which well dicu how Philadelphia and other citie are addreing how to create a
more economicall integrated, acceile and livale cit for all. Regiter here to join u.

BECOMEANEXTCITYMEMBERTODAY

Next Cit contriutor Sand Smith i an aociate editor at

Philadelphia magazine. Over the ear, hi work ha appeared
in Hidden Cit Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Inquirer and other
local and regional pulication. Hi interet in citie tretche
ack to hi outh in Kana Cit, and hi career in journalim
and media relation extend ack that far a well.

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FOLLOW SANDY EMAIL SANDY

TAGS: AFFORDABLE HOUSING,REAL ESTATE,GENTRIFICATION,CITY SESSIONS

Learning at a School With a Student Turnover Rate of

179 Percent
BY RACHEL M. COHEN | NOVEMBER 17, 2014

AGatesfundedpilotinTacoma,Wash.,tieshousingvoucherstopublicschools.

he Hilltop neighorhood in Tacoma, Wahington i one of the pooret in the tate with man

familie living in povert and truggling to maintain houing. Such intailit inevital
impact the pulic chool capacit to function; in 2006, Hilltop McCarver lementar School

witneed a tudent turnover rate of 179 percent. Thi, a reearcher at the Uran Intitute have

pointed out, i nothing unique to McCarver. Low-income tudent frequentl move around, and famil
homelene i a growing prolem. A new report from the National Center on Famil
Homelene reveal that one in 30 children experienced homelene in 2013.

What i new i the polic olution eing teted out the Tacoma Houing Authorit and Tacoma
Pulic School largel acked the Gate Foundation to ee if traditional Section 8 houing
voucher can e leveraged to provide affordale houing and oot local chool performance.

The Gate Foundation i inveting in a hot of uch experimental partnerhip to reearch the link
etween houing intailit and educational achievement. With the potential to improve chool
performance, oot emploment level and reduce dependenc on houing voucher, thee program

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have decided political appeal. Yet while the Tacoma experiment offer a good model of cooperation
among agencie, there little evidence that the approach can reduce povert, a policmaker hope it
will.

The McCarver Special Houing Program tipulate that in order to remain eligile for a houing
voucher, parent mut keep their kid enrolled in McCarver lementar School throughout the fiveear tud, regularl demontrate active involvement in their children education and attend a hot of
jo training program. With the help of local caeworker, the mut alo achieve economic elfufficienc (earning enough to afford a two-edroom apartment, which i aout $771 per month in
rent) the end of the fifth ear.

For the firt ear, rent i maivel uidized jut $25 per month and in each ear thereafter it
increae 20 percent. The hope i that if houing can e a tailizing force, epeciall in the firt ear,
then parent can focu on their economic future and their children chooling.

So far, the McCarver program ha ielded ome intereting reult. Acro all participating
houehold, average monthl income roe from $436 in 2011 to $836 in 2013. Student turnover within
the experimental cohort i alo ignificantl le compared to the ret of the chool.

Dontmissoutonallourbestreporting.Followus.

The program egan with 49 familie in 2011, joined even more in 2012. Of thoe 58 familie, 39 are

till participating.

Some departed for poitive reaon, like finding a new jo in a different part of town ut other for
le encouraging reaon. Some familie reall truggled and couldnt complete the requirement, o
the familie were eentiall dropped from the program, a Jutin Milner, an Uran Intitute
reearcher who tudied the McCarver project. (The McCarver program doent count the 19 familie
that dropped out when calculating the cohort average monthl income increae.)

Although Tacoma i a relativel poor cit, and even in wealthier area, man highl educated people
cannot find tale work, the McCarver program frame the economic iue a one where parent lack
the kill and training necear to otain emploment not that there arent olid jo to get. When I
aked Greg Clacamp, an official with the Tacoma Houing Authorit, what would happen if familie
were unale to pa full rent at the end of the five ear ecaue there are no decent emploment
propect availale, he could not confirm that familie would continue to receive houing aitance. I
think we want to e ver careful aout not penalizing a houehold that turn out to have reall complex
challenge, Clacamp a. ut for now no final deciion ha een made.

Reearcher Sendhil Mullainathan and ldar Shafir, in their ook Scarcit: Wh Having Too Little
Mean So Much explain how man ocial polic deigner aume the prolem i a lack of
undertanding or of motivation. So the follow up with attempt to educate or to harpen incentive.
Mullainathan and Shafir have found that uch carrot-and-tick approache might actuall lead to
greater harm.

Thi highlight a central tenion with thee new partnerhip. xploring the relationhip etween
education and houing i a mart thing to do giving kid and parent the opportunit to learn in afe,
caring and even rigorou environment i omething that all democratic ocietie hould e promoting.

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Leveraging thee relationhip a a mean to reduce povert and reliance on welfare, however, i quite
another ojective.

In mid-Octoer, Clacamp joined houing authorit official from around the countr in Wahington
D.C. to attend a conference at the National Council of Large Pulic Houing Authoritie (NCLPHA)
where thi quetion of cro-collaoration etween chool ditrict and houing authoritie wa a major
theme. Another NCLPHA conference devoted pecificall to thi quetion will e taking place in D.C. in
Feruar.

Our focu on thi tarted a couple of ear ago, given the difficult environment in Wahington and
udget contraint, a Sunia Zaterman, executive director of NCLPHA. Were erving at et a
quarter of the houehold that are in need, o we want to reduce inter-generational povert to free up
reource for the next one on the waiting lit. Gate-funded experiment are cropping up all over,
from the Pacific Northwet to Akron, Ohio to New Haven, Connecticut. Not all follow the Tacoma model
ome are focued on implementing earl childhood learning initiative and ome are geared toward
mentorhip and tutoring. Right now, Zaterman a, houing authoritie are jut intereted in
expanding reearch tudie to learn more aout what thee divere partnerhip are capale of doing,
although he treed no one-ize-fit-all approach would e feaile or wie.

The Gate Foundation operate with the tated elief that qualit education i the et wa to reak

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the ccle of povert. Yet depite their trong emrace of metric and data, thi doe not appear to e
an evidence-upported claim. Tax and tranfer program, like that of Social Securit, which reduced

elderl povert from 47 percent in 1967 to 15 percent toda, have proven to e far and awa the mot
effective povert reduction polic.

Rout educational upport and greater mentorhip opportunitie are good thing, and have een

hown to lead to etter educational outcome. So exploring how to improve a child education
leveraging chool and houing trategie i promiing, and warrant further invetigation. ven in our
da of doom and gloom, thi ha een ver uplifting, Zaterman note.

ut a more organization, think tank and working group devote their energ to reearching joint
houing and education program, it important to purue thee program for the right reaon.
Improving educational achievement i an important aim in and of itelf. Democratic nation depend
upon the preence of an active and educated citizenr. ut in the aence of a trong econom and
without an ample cah-tranfer tem that can ait the poor who lack wealth and aving, familie
are unlikel to reak the ccle of povert. There are great poiilitie, and alo practical limitation, to
thee new initiative.

BECOMEANEXTCITYMEMBERTODAY

TAGS: AFFORDABLE HOUSING,PUBLIC SCHOOLS

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Dontmissoutonallourbestreporting.Followus.

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