New Updates on The Edge

Message from PD&R Leadership:
Landlords
In the leadership message, acting general deputy assistant secretary for PD&R Todd M. Richardson discusses America's landlords. Although little research is available on this group, Richardson reviews a number of data sources to provide an analysis of who controls the country's rental properties, trends in rental property investment, and trends relating to the willingness of landlords to participate in the Housing Choice Voucher program, including insights from the recently released report, "Urban Landlords and the Housing Choice Voucher Program."

In Practice:
Sylvia Odom's Place Is the Next Step Toward Independent Living for Formerly Homeless Individuals in Seattle
Opened in January 2016, Sylvia Odom's Place provides 63 studio apartments for use by participants in Plymouth Housing Group's Housing Options Program (HOP). HOP helps formerly homeless residents in Seattle, Washington, move from a more supportive environment in one of Plymouth's other buildings to a development that allows them to exercise more independence. Sylvia's Place cost $20.4 million to develop and is the first all-HOP building in Plymouth's portfolio.

Research:
Landlords and the Housing Choice Voucher Program
A new research report published by PD&R discusses the role urban landlords play in shaping housing outcomes among participants in the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program. Using interviews with landlords based in Baltimore, Dallas, and Cleveland, in addition to other data sources, this research provides new insight into how landlords in urban markets perceive the HCV program and how this perception affects HCV households' access to housing.

Trending:
Retail in the District: What Is Going On?
The Urban Land Institute in Washington, DC, hosted a presentation titled "Retail in the Age of Amazon — Strategies for Retail Success," in April 2018. The presentation featured prominent local retail managers and investment professionals, and focused on how local businesses can adapt to a retail environment in which more shopping is conducted over the Internet. Speakers analyzed examples of retail successes and failures around the District of Columbia and discussed explanations for those outcomes.

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