Cityscape Examines Inclusion and Exclusion in American Neighborhoods

Cityscape Examines Inclusion and Exclusion in American Neighborhoods

The latest issue of Cityscape: A Journal of Policy Development and Research features a research symposium held to examine forces that limit inclusion in American neighborhoods. Guest Editors Paul Joice and Meena Bavan introduce the symposium by noting that after six decades of focused policy and legislation, blatant discrimination in the housing market has given way to more subtle forms that limit housing choices for minority renters and homebuyers. Joice and Bavan further note that although diversity in neighborhoods has grown, broad segregation patterns persist — often based on economic and social realities that block access to opportunity. As HUD looks to the future, the editors discuss the Department's plans to increasingly promote diverse inclusive communities.

The articles included in this symposium explore recent research related to ongoing exclusive housing patterns and efforts to develop inclusive mixed-race, mixed-income communities:

Laura M. Tach reports on an analysis of the social dynamics of a South End Boston neighborhood characterized by stable economic and racial diversity. Through secondary data and in-depth interviews with residents and stakeholders, Tach reveals perceptions of diversity, daily routines, and use of common neighborhood spaces from which race- and class-based patterns of interaction emerge to form pockets of microsegregation within a larger neighborhood.

Elyzabeth Gaumer, Ahuva Jacobowitz, and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn describe the social networks and the context of local relationships among residents of a new mixed-income New York City housing complex. Data was collected through interviews to determine characteristics of networks based on ties to residents living in the neighborhood, as well as for networks grounded in building-based ties with neighbors. The researchers report lower rates of social exchange among neighbors within the same building than with those living elsewhere in the neighborhood that are similar to residents, but within-building networks are important for accessing informational support.

Ron Cheung and Rachel Meltzer investigate conditions in which homeowner associations (HOAs) tend to form, using comprehensive data on HOAs in 2,176 census tracts in Florida, a state with a large number of these groups. Findings suggest that race, ethnicity, and income are good predictors of where HOAs form; i.e., in mostly white, more affluent census tracts furthest away from city centers and where fewer residents use public transit. Tracts in cities that spend less overall on public services are also more likely to contain HOAs. As a result of these findings, the authors note that minorities may be missing out on effective provision of public services, while local governments may be allowing HOA services to substitute for public spending.

Matthew F. Gebhardt concludes, from analyzing the characteristics of Choice Neighborhoods Initiative (Choice) Planning Grant applicants, that the program is likely to improve neighborhood choice and opportunities for minority groups. Findings show that applicant neighborhoods are highly segregated and that this segregation is linked to differences in educational attainment, labor force participation, unemployment rates, and income levels — disparities that Choice is designed to address.

In addition to the symposium, this Cityscape issue features articles from regularly appearing departments: Data Shop: Developing a Proxy for Identifying Family Developments in HUD's LIHTC Data: Using Information on the Distribution of Units by Size, by Rachel M.B. Atkins and Katherine M. O'Regan and Data Sources for U.S. Housing Research, Part 1: Public Sector Data Sources by Daniel H. Weinberg; Graphic Detail: Mapping White-Black and Temporal Differences in State Homeownership Rates With Two-Way Comparative Micromaps by Brent D. Mast; Industrial Revolution: The Remodeling Conundrum: When the Order Matters by Patrick H. Huelman; Impact: Economic Analysis of Increasing HUD's Manufactured Housing Inspection Label Fee by Michael K. Hollar; and spAM (Spatial Analysis and Methods): Evaluating Spatial Model Accuracy in Mass Real Estate Appraisal: A Comparison of Geographically Weighted Regression and the Spatial Lag Model by Paul E. Bidanset and John R. Lombard.