New Updates on The Edge

Message from PD&R Leadership:
Blast From the Past: How the Experimental Housing Allowance Program of the 1970s Can Inform the Moving to Work Expansion Today
In the 1970s, HUD’s Experimental Housing Allowance Program (EHAP) tested two different versions of housing allowances, which informed the creation of the Housing Choice Voucher program and generated several reports. Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy Development Todd M. Richardson discusses how old policy memos and reports in HUD User’s publication archives, such as those associated with the EHAP experiments, offer insights from the past and can help to inform current policy conversations about HUD programs like Moving to Work.

Research:
HOPE VI Data Compilation and Analysis
To follow through on its goal to support mixed-income housing, HUD began implementing the HOPE VI program in the 1990s, and until 2011, the program was used locally to deconcentrate poverty and revitalize neighborhoods. PD&R recently released a study, HOPE VI Data Compilation and Analysis, that explores the income and tenure mix of housing units, the return rate of original residents to redeveloped properties, and other characteristics of the 260 projects developed and financed through HOPE VI grants.

In Practice:
Capitol Hall Renovation Upgrades Supportive Housing for New York City’s Vulnerable
In 2015, Capitol Hall, a supportive housing facility in New York City, underwent a $16.7 million transformative renovation that expanded program spaces and converted 200 single-room occupancy units reserved for those experiencing homelessness into more private living areas. As part of the renovation, the Goddard Riverside Community Center added kitchenettes with microwaves and refrigerators in every unit, as well as bathrooms in 152 units, without reducing the number of units or permanently displacing residents.

Spotlight on PD&R Data:
Comparing Housing Markets: Baton Rouge and Lafayette, Louisiana
PD&R recently published two Comprehensive Housing Market Analyses focused on the Lafayette and Baton Rouge, Louisiana housing market areas (HMAs), which are included in HUD Region 6. As a whole, this region has been undergoing an economic expansion since 2011, leading to rising home and apartment sales and decreasing vacancy rates, but rates of economic growth have varied throughout the region. This article examines how decreased oil prices have affected the economies and housing markets of the Lafayette and Baton Rouge HMAs.

Please send your comments and suggestions to editor@huduser.gov.