Does Location Matter? Performance Analysis of the Affordable Housing Programs with Respect to Transportation Affordability in Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) Metropolis

Author(s):  
Shima Hamidi ◽  
Jinat Jahan ◽  
Somayeh Moazzeni

Transportation costs are the second largest expenditure for a family, thus have a substantial influence on housing affordability. In an auto-oriented region like DFW, the situation is exacerbated for low-income families due to limited transportation options. This study seeks to evaluate the efficiency of major affordable housing programs for low-income people in terms of transportation affordability. This study uses a rigorous methodology that involves a solid transportation cost modeling with disaggregated data available at property level for housing assistance programs in DFW. Our findings show that about 69% of the assisted units in DFW are unaffordable in terms of transportation costs. The majority of them are spending about 17% to 20% of their income on transportation. The most affordable program is Low-Income Housing Tax Credit with 58% affordability rate and the least affordable program is the Continuum of Care with 9% affordability rate when accounting for transportation costs. We also found that almost all affordable units (regarding the transportation costs) are located in main economic hubs of the region such as Dallas and Fort Worth which have better access to jobs and public transit. In contrary, almost all housing properties in the areas between Dallas and Fort Worth are unaffordable. These are areas adjacent to the University of Texas at Arlington with a high number of transit dependent population and in Arlington, the biggest midsize city with no public transit. Our findings urge HUD to consider modifying these programs by incorporating the location-efficiency factors to ensure true affordability.

2013 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Soheil Sabri ◽  
Ahmad Nazri M. Ludin ◽  
Foziah Johar

One of the primary aims of transit-oriented development (TOD) is to reduce auto dependency, especially for low-income as well as senior residents. This study aims at providing some guiding principles for development of affordable housing with respect to TOD concept. As such, the study employed an index called Affordability Index (AI) and adapted for the study area to assess the neighbourhoods' affordability. It is composed of housing cost, household transportation cost, and household income. The analyses were conducted on three neighbourhoods in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The results reveal that the AI is lower for both owners and renters in the neighbourhood farther away from the LRT station, where there is less public transit facility, despite the existence of more affordable housing. On the contrary, the index is high in the neighbourhood where the distance to LRT station is shorter, connectivity index is higher, and there are more public transport facilities, despite the presence of high- and medium-cost housings. These findings can be used to plan for suitable public transport facilities in view of neighbourhood affordability.


2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-29
Author(s):  
Muhammad Ahsan

AbstractAffordable Housing is a critical issue in many developing countries that impacts their potential for sustainability and socio-economic development. Lack of affordable housing, slower growth of housing stock, and aging housing conflates numerous other problems in Pakistan, including overcrowding, poor indoor air quality, prevalence of preventable diseases, and development of slums and katchi abadies, etc. These challenges lessen living standards in many areas. Unaffordable housing forces low income families in urban areas to live in dilapidated areas. An increase in the construction of affordable housing is needed to mitigate housing affordability challenges in Pakistan. Setting aside land quotas for low-income families in housing development schemes is not sufficient because the households still lack the means to construct housing. This paper attempts to identify the causes of unaffordable housing and solutions for its provision.


Author(s):  
Soheil Sabri ◽  
Ahmad Nazri M. Ludin ◽  
Foziah Johar

One of the primary aims of transit-oriented development (TOD) is to reduce auto dependency, especially for low-income as well as senior residents. This study aims at providing some guiding principles for development of affordable housing with respect to TOD concept. As such, the study employed an index called Affordability Index (AI) and adapted for the study area to assess the neighbourhoods' affordability. It is composed of housing cost, household transportation cost, and household income. The analyses were conducted on three neighbourhoods in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The results reveal that the AI is lower for both owners and renters in the neighbourhood farther away from the LRT station, where there is less public transit facility, despite the existence of more affordable housing. On the contrary, the index is high in the neighbourhood where the distance to LRT station is shorter, connectivity index is higher, and there are more public transport facilities, despite the presence of high- and medium-cost housings. These findings can be used to plan for suitable public transport facilities in view of neighbourhood affordability.


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 123
Author(s):  
Jinat Jahan ◽  
Shima Hamidi

This national study is an effort to measure transportation costs and affordability for the major Housing and Urban Development (HUD) housing assistance programs since the transportation costs are the second largest expense of American households. This study estimates transportation costs for 76,000 address level properties from seven major HUD-designated affordable housing programs. Our transportation cost models are tailored for low-income households and account for built environmental determinants of travel, known as D variables, at the disaggregated level. We found that more than 44% of these properties in 326 U.S. metropolitan areas are unaffordable in terms of transportation costs. That could result in a waste of over $37.9 billion HUD spends annually to run these programs and subsidize housing for low-income families while some of these families spend substantial amount of their income on transportation. Our findings suggest that the provision of subsidized housing in mixed use, and transit-served neighborhoods would help low-income households to reduce their transportation costs even in auto-oriented sprawling regions. This study concludes with policy recommendations to local and federal governments and transit agencies on ways to incorporate transportation parameters to ensure true affordability for low-income residents of subsidized housing.


2011 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 16-26
Author(s):  
Urmi Sengupta

Since 1991 with the advent of globalization and economic liberalisation, basic conceptual and discursive changes are taking place in housing sector in India. The new changes suggest how housing affordability, quality and lifestyles reality is shifting for various segments of the population. Such shift not only reflects structural patterns but also stimulates an ongoing transition process. The paper highlights a twin impetus that continue to shape the ongoing transition: expanding middle class and their wealth - a category with distinctive lifestyles, desires and habits and corresponding ‘market defining’ of affordable housing standards - to articulate function of housing as a conceptualization of social reality in modern India. The paper highlights the contradictions and paradoxes, and the manner in which the concept of affordability, quality and lifestyles are embedded in both discourse and practice in India. The housing ‘dream’ currently being packaged and fed through to the middle class population has an upper middle class bias and is set to alienate those at the lower end of the middle-and low-income population. In the context of growing agreement and inevitability of market provision of ‘affordable housing’, the unbridled ‘market-defining’ of housing quality and lifestyles must be checked.


Urban Studies ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 004209802092783
Author(s):  
Matthew Palm ◽  
Katrina Eve Raynor ◽  
Georgia Warren-Myers

Governments worldwide have responded to housing affordability challenges with supply-side solutions. Proponents of these approaches often draw on the notion of ‘filtering effects’ to argue that new supply naturally trickles down to lower-income households over time, improving affordability. This study examines the characteristics of Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing in Melbourne, Australia, analysing how dwelling age impacts rental cost. We specify a non-linear relationship between building age and rents through hedonic rent modelling, reflecting a premium for historic properties in inner Melbourne. We also conduct a cluster analysis of rental listings and measure affordability by cluster. Our results problematise the notion of filtering, finding that most contemporary affordable housing was initially built in the 1960s and 1970s as social housing or targeted at low-income households. We argue that filtering in this instance is not natural but is instead a reflection of historic government expenditure and past construction choices, or ‘filter up’.


Toxins ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 348 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Ahlberg ◽  
Delia Grace ◽  
Gideon Kiarie ◽  
Yumi Kirino ◽  
Johanna Lindahl

Aflatoxin M1 (AFM1), a human carcinogen, is found in milk products and may have potentially severe health impacts on milk consumers. We assessed the risk of cancer and stunting as a result of AFM1 consumption in Nairobi, Kenya, using worst case assumptions of toxicity and data from previous studies. Almost all (99.5%) milk was contaminated with AFM1. Cancer risk caused by AFM1 was lower among consumers purchasing from formal markets (0.003 cases per 100,000) than for low-income consumers (0.006 cases per 100,000) purchasing from informal markets. Overall cancer risk (0.004 cases per 100,000) from AFM1 alone was low. Stunting is multifactorial, but assuming only AFM1 consumption was the determinant, consumption of milk contaminated with AFM1 levels found in this study could contribute to 2.1% of children below three years in middle-income families, and 2.4% in low-income families, being stunted. Overall, 2.7% of children could hypothetically be stunted due to AFM1 exposure from milk. Based on our results AFM1 levels found in milk could contribute to an average of −0.340 height for age z-score reduction in growth. The exposure to AFM1 from milk is 46 ng/day on average, but children bear higher exposure of 3.5 ng/kg bodyweight (bw)/day compared to adults, at 0.8 ng/kg bw/day. Our paper shows that concern over aflatoxins in milk in Nairobi is disproportionate if only risk of cancer is considered, but that the effect on stunting children might be much more significant from a public health perspective; however, there is still insufficient data on the health effects of AFM1.


2020 ◽  
pp. 003802612091612
Author(s):  
Max Holleran

This article examines housing activism in five American cities using interviews with millennial-age housing activists, seeking more apartment development, and baby boomers who are members of neighbourhood groups that oppose growth. Many of the groups supporting growth have banded together under the banner of the ‘Yes in My Backyard’ (YIMBY) movement which seeks fewer zoning laws and pushes for market-rate rental housing. In desirable cities with thriving job opportunities, housing costs are pricing out not only low-income renters but also the middle class. The millennial activists sampled blame baby boomers for the lack of affordable housing because of resistance to higher density construction in neighbourhoods with single-family homes (characterising these people as having a ‘Not in My Backyard’ [NIMBY] mindset). The research shows that boomers and millennials not only disagree over urban growth but also more fundamental questions of what makes a liveable city.


2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-20
Author(s):  
Lulut Indrianingrum

Affordable housing programs and banking program has been launched for the implementation of housing programs for Low Income Communities (MBR). MBR characteristics in each region are very diverse make housing programs for this segment is not easy to do the right target. Act 2 of 2001 has mandated that states are obliged to implement the settlement habitable housing for people, especially the MBR. This article will discuss how the public views MBR related to home ownership for families. Aspects related studies include family conditions, financing, location, shape and price residence. The research method used descriptive method with the results of questionnaires to the MBR in Sub Tanjungmas as Village poorest residents in the city of Semarang. The results showed that the respondents have a vision of home ownership by saving and installments. That their visions are still living in and near where you live now or anywhere else that has the same price range. They really understand that in order to obtain environmental conditions and a better home, they have to pay higher prices, then, the standards they use is on the quality of life now and that the location that suitable for them is a house in the kampong area.Program-program perumahan terjangkau dan program perbankan telah diluncurkan untuk pelaksanaan program perumahan untuk Masyarakat Berpenghasilan Rendah (MBR). Karakteristik MBR di masing-masing daerah yang sangat beragam membuat program perumahan untuk segmen ini tidak mudah dilakukan secara tepat sasaran. Undang-Undang No.2 tahun 2001 telah mengamanatkan bahwa negara wajib menyelenggarakan perumahan permukiman yang layak huni bagi masyarakat khususnya MBR. Artikel ini akan membahas bagaimana pandangan masyarakat MBR terkait kepemilikan rumah bagi keluarganya. Aspek kajian antara lain terkait kondisi keluarga, pembiayaan, lokasi, bentuk tempat tinggal dan harga. Metode penelitian menggunakan metode deskriptif melalui hasil kuisioner kepada MBR di Kelurahan Tanjungmas sebagai Kelurahan dengan penduduk miskin terbanyak di Kota Semarang. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa responden memiliki visi dalam kepemilikan rumah dengan cara menabung dan mencicil. Bahwa visi mereka adalah masih tinggal disekitar lokasi tempat tinggal sekarang atau tempat lain yang memiliki rentang harga yang sama. Mereka sangat memahami bahwa untuk memperoleh kondisi lingkungan dan rumah yang lebih baik, mereka harus membayar lebih mahal, maka, standar yang mereka gunakan adalah pada kualitas hidup yang dijalani sekarang bahwa lokasi rumah yang cocok untuk mereka adalah rumah di perkampungan.


2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (17) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nor Azizan Che Embi ◽  
Salina Kassim ◽  
Roslily Ramlee ◽  
Wan Rohaida Wan Husain

Housing affordability is important to ensure houses are affordable to everyone across all income categories, whether they are in the low-income, middle-income (M40), or high-income group. Building housing projects on waqf land will help increase the supply of affordable houses, especially targeted at the M40 group, while also addressing the shortage of affordable housing for the M40 cohort. This study analyses public perceptions of house characteristics and relate these factors to affordable housing prices. The independent variables are location, infrastructure, facilities, size, design and quality. By applying a quantitative research design, the study aims to understand the relationship between various demanded housing characteristics vis-a-vis the price of the house. A sample of 261 usable responses was analysed using the Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). The results show that house size is not statistically significant in influencing the housing price, while location, infrastructure and design of the house are positively significant factors. These findings are expected to provide important inputs to the relevant authorities on factors that are critical in influencing the prices of housing projects built on waqf land in Malaysia.


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