Housing

Question 1

National Housing Act of 1937

Answer 1

This Act tied slum clearance to public housing and provided subsidies paid by the U.S. government to local public housing agencies.

• Created US Housing Authority (USHA) to channel financial assistance in the form of direct loans and opening subsidies to local housing authorities for slum clearance and for construction adn operation of public housing for low income families.

Question 2

National Housing Act of 1949

Answer 2

The first comprehensive housing legislation passed in the U.S. The Act called for the construction of 800,000 new housing units and emphasized slum clearance.

Created Urban Renewal

• Focus on slum clearance (i.e. clearing slums and rebuilding blighted areas, emphasizing new construction)
• Supposedly reaffirmed federal commitment to the housing needs of the poor.
• Provided money for localities to assemble clear then sell or lease for “predominantly residential uses ”to housing agencies or private developers.
• Perpetuated racial discrimination.
• Replaced low density townhouses with superblocks or Housing Projects, warehouses for the poor

Question 3

Housing Act of 1954

Answer 3

• Expanded Urban Renewal but** focused on slum prevention** (saving downtown and allowing the city to better compete with suburbs; rehabilitation rather than clearance)
• Section 701: established the first federal matching funds for local comprehensive plans for communities with less than 25,000 population. 701 plan had to be coordinated by state planning offices. Later expanded to include larger cities and Regional Planning Councils
• authorized loans and grants to metropolitan and regional planning
• encouraged planning profession and public participation
• gave direct assistance to munis with populations of 50,000 or more to undertake comprehensive planning.
• Workable Program for Community Improvement: recertification of comprehensive master plans for cities to be eligible for federal funds; element of achieving racial and socio-economic mix was mostly ignored

Question 4

Housing Act of 1961

Answer 4

• Section 221(d)3 provided for an interest subsidy to private nonprofit corporations, limited-dividend corporations, co-ops, and some public agencies to construct rental housign for LMI families
• Section 202: created supportive housing for the elderly by providing loans directly to nonprofit and limited dividend sponsors for 100% of the development cost
• interest subsidy program became the basic federal housing program of the 60s

Question 5

Demonstration Cities and Metropolitan Development Act

Answer 5

This 1966 Act launched the “model cities” program, providing financial incentives for coordinated metro area planning.

Question 6

CDBG Program

Answer 6

The Community Development Block Grant Program (CDBG) was created under the Housing and Community Development Act (1974) and provided flexibility for communities to use federal funds for the improvement of blighted areas.

And started Section 8 Housing Program

Various types of community improvements: open spaces, beautification, historic preservation, neghborhood facilities, urban renewal, and model cities

Question 7

Housing and Community Development Act (1974)

Answer 7

Created section 8 - provides rental subsidy housing choice vouches for eligible tenant families
Consolidated programs into Community Development Block Grant Program
Entitlement formula:
* Activities must benefit LMI households
* Goal: provide decent housing and suitable living environment, expanding economic opportunities for LMI persons
* Can be used for projects besides economic development, including resiliency
* Requires public participation for the 5-year Consolidated Plans and Annual Review or Consolidated Annual Performance and Evaluation Report (CAPER)
* Consolidated Plan - 5 - year plan of community’s housing needs, resources, priorities and proposed activities with HUD finding including CDBG

Question 8

Housing and Urban Development Act of 1965

Answer 8

This Act created the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) which replaced HHFA

• Created under Lyndon Johnson as part of the Great Society
• 1st Secretary was first Black cabinet member, Robert Weaver
• Subsidies for more than 200,000 low rent public housing projects

Question 9

Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968

Answer 9

This Act provided for the construction of six million subsidized housing units and authorized monthly subsidies for private houses for low-income families.

• 6M subsidized housing units to be built over 10 years
• Section 235 - subsidized low monthly payments for private homes financed under FHA mortgage insurance program for LMI households
• Section 236 - provided low interest rate mortgage assistance for private loans to for profit developers of projects which included affordable multi=family rental an coop housing

Began movement away from public construction and ownership of affordable rent housing

Question 10

Urban Development Action Grant Program (1977)

Answer 10

The UDAG program promoted public-private partnerships for the redevelopment of urban areas.
*

Question 11

National Manufactured Housing Construction
and Safety Act of 1974

Answer 11

This Act regulated manufactured housing units (“mobile homes”) for the first time
* manufactured homes required to have steel chassis and wheels
* mobile homes predate these acts and aren’t necessarily HUD compliant

Question 12

Fair Housing Act (1968) or Title VIII

Answer 12

Titles VIII through IX of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 comprise the Fair Housing Act (FHA), an expansion of previous acts to prohibit discrimination concerning the sale, rental, and financing of housing.

Prohibited housing discrimination based solely on race, color, religion or natoinal origin

Question 13

Servicemen’s Readjustment Act (1944) aka GI Bill

Answer 13

Guaranteed home loans to veterans. The result was the rapid development of suburbs.

Question 14

NYC Tenement Housing Act of 1867

Answer 14

The first major housing code in the U.S. The Act required all rooms within tenements to have windows, but it did not require windows to open to the outside.

Question 15

NYC Tenement Housing Act of 1879

Answer 15

This law required that windows open to outside air, which resulted in the dumbbell tenement housing type, referred to as “Old Law Tenements.”

NYC, requirements for light, air → dumbbell shape and windows to pen into shaft between 2 adjacent structures
People just throw trash down the open air way 🙁
2 toilets on each floor
1890 - Jacob Riis published “How the Other Half Lives” and Turner Vielle

Question 16

NYC Tenement House Law of 1901

Answer 16

• Inspections and permits required for construction, alteration, conversion
• Housing provided by private companies
• Cut lot coverage to 70% on interior lots, 90% on corner lots, toilet in every unit, window open to fresh air

Question 17

National Housing Act of 1934

Answer 17

• Roosevelt and New Deal → creating Federal Housing Administration to act as mortgage insurance agency
• Regulate interest rates and mortgage terms after banking crisis of 1930s
• Federal govt insured mortgages issued by qualified lenders, providing mortgage lenders protection from default
• If borrower failed ot make payments, FHA covered unpaid balance
• Created Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation - both mortgages and savings were insured
• Self amortizing payments: mortgage paid over period of time with payments including interest and principal

Question 18

Resettlement Administration (1935)

Answer 18

In 1935, the Resettlement Administration used New Deal funds to develop new towns throughout the U.S. Three of these were the “Greenbelt” communities of Greendale, WI, Greenhills, OH, and Greenbelt, MD, which are all in existence today.

Question 19

Hope VI (1992)

Answer 19

Provided funds for the redevelopment of severely distressed public housing. Emphasized mixed-income neighborhoods and New Urbanist design principles.

Question 20

Consolidated Plan

Answer 20

A process (and document) through which a community identifies its housing, homeless and community development needs. Required to receive funding from HUD programs.

Question 21

Workforce housing

Answer 21

A term used for subsidized housing meant for teachers, nurses, police officers, and others in the workforce. The term is popular because it is seen as having less social stigma than “affordable housing.” 80% 120% area median income.

Question 22

Community development banks

Answer 22

Banks that operate in low to moderate income areas. They are certified by the US Department of Treasury.

Question 23

Colonias

Answer 23

Unincorporated subdivisions with little or no infrastructure that are sold to low-income individuals. Colonias are located in Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas, and their residents are predominantly Hispanic.

Question 24

Neighborhood Unit

Answer 24

The Neighborhood Unit Concept developed by Clarence Perry in 1929 defines a neighborhood based on a five-minute walking radius, with a school at its center. Each neighborhood is approximately 160 acres.

Question 25

HOME Program (1990)

Answer 25

The HOME Investment Partnerships Program was authorized by the Cranston-Gonzalez National Affordable Housing Act of 1990. HOME is a federal block grant program that provides funding to states and localities for affordable housing. * HOME Investment Partnership initiated from the National AFfordable Housing Act of 1990 * Similar to CDBG * State and local govts are eligible to receive housing block grants based on formula * Funded nonprofits with 15% of funds * Allowed for repairs to housing to be brought up to city code

Question 26

Pruitt-Igoe

Answer 26

A public housing development in St. Louis, first occupied in 1954, demolished in 1972. Its demolition marked a shift away from high-rise concentrated public housing.

Question 27

Tax reform act 1986

Answer 27

Low income housing tax (LIHTC) program created.

Question 28

Americans with Disabilities act (ADA) 1990

Answer 28

Prohibits discrimination upon disability

Question 29

Housing Presevation

Answer 29

Preservation of older, market rate housing both in the owner occupied housing stock as well as with rentals..

Question 30

Inclusionary Housing

Answer 30

Requires developers or others to include housing units affordable to low to moderate income households in the market rate housing developments. *Can be voluntary or mandatory.

Question 31

Exclusionary Housing

Answer 31

One or multiple segments of the population, typically low-moderate income household, are excluded from housing within a development or a community.

Question 32

Low income housing Tax Credit (LIHTC)

Answer 32

**Rental program** * Administered through IRS * finance 2.4M affordable rental housing units for low-income households *** Designed to attract equity capital for investment in rent restricted affordable housing** * Owners or invstors get tax credits for 10 year period based on the cost of the development and the number of low=income units produce * Rent charged (in credit units) cannot be more than 30% of their gross income * Federal program with state versions * Tax credits are allocated based on state population * Tenants are “low income” with incomes that are equal or less than 50% of AMI (20% set aside) or 60% AMI (40% of units must be set aside) * Investor-backed system for getting rental assistance

Question 33

Housing choice vouchers (Section 8)

Answer 33

Assists low income households by providing a housing subside for rent.

Question 34

Affordable housing

Answer 34

Housing that is affordable to low to moderate income housing is standard metric used in the housing sector. 30% of income for housing.

Question 35

Housing Redlining

Answer 35

When mortgages are denied or limited on a certain neighborhoods because of the racial or ethnic make up of the residents living in the neighborhood, rather than their qualification and financial solvency Developed by Home Owners Loan Corp in 1930s; maps were sorted by socio-economic status to effectively deny loan assistance to worst districts inside the “red line”

Question 36

Universal design

Answer 36

Making housing accessible to those of any physical ability or age.

Question 37

Consolidated Plan

Answer 37

in 1995, HUD required local communities to prepare a Consolidated Plan in order to receive funding from HUD programs. A process and a document. Annual action and multi-year goals

Question 38

Consolidated planning process replaces the planning and application requirements for

Answer 38

Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) HOME Investment Partnership Program (HOME) Emergency Shelter Grant (ESG) Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA)

Question 39

By 2030, people over the age of 65 are expected to represent

Answer 39

20 percent of the US population. 1 out of 5 people.

Question 40

Causes of Homelessness

Answer 40

**Poverty:** Eroding work opportunities and declining income for lower-level workers (such as janitors, restaurant workers, retail clerks and stockers, manual laborers), coupled with decreasing welfare benefits and rental assistance funding. **Unemployment and Underemployment:** Many people become homeless due to unemployment and underemployment. Even when people are employed, their salaries may not be adequate to afford decent housing or to allow accumulation of savings, living paycheck to paycheck. Many people that seek emergency and transitional housing are employed. **Lack of Affordable Housing:** Low-rent units are disappearing from the market — abandoned, demolished, or converted into more expensive housing. Costs of new construction continue to escalate, while deep subsidies that provide direct rental assistance to the poor are declining. Waiting lists for housing assistance average 33 months in the nation's larger cities.17 Despite recent moves to increase the minimum wage, in no state does a full-time minimum wage job enable most families to pay for a moderately priced two-bedroom apartment.18 * Increased housing costs * Decreased family support * Loss of affordable housing stock * Decline in rental assistance * Decrease in family support services, including child care * Increased suburbanization on which concentrated urban poverty * Increased drug use * Deinstitutionalization of mental health facilities in the 1990s * Lack of affordable healthcare * Declining employment opportunities * Types of homelessness: * Hidden Homelessness (rural areas) * Transitional homelessness (few days of weeks) * Chronic homelessness

Question 41

New Communities Act of 1968

Answer 41

Provided funding for **private development** of new towns (Reston, VA; Columbia, MD)

Question 42

Inclusionary housing

Answer 42

housing are often put into place as either policies or through a city’s zoning ordinance. In the most basic form, inclusionary housing requires developers or others to include housing units affordable to low- to moderate-income households in their market rate housing developments.can be voluntary or mandatory

Question 43

Exclusionary housing

Answer 43

one or multiple segments of the population—typically low- to moderate-income households, are excluded from housing within a development or a community. Regulatory barriers such as certain provisions in zoning ordinances, high fees, and design/housing code requirements can be perceived as exclusionary housing techniques.

Question 44

Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC)

Answer 44

Created as part of the Tax Reform Act of 1986, the LIHTC program is an important resource for creating affordable housing. States and other LIHTC allocating agencies are given an annual distribution of tax credits to help with the construction or rehabilitation of rental housing for lower income households.

Question 45

Housing Choice Vouchers

Answer 45

sometimes called Section 8, is a federal program which assists low income households by providing a housing subsidy for rent. The vouchers are administered by a local public housing authority, which pays a subsidy directly to the landlord. The household then pays the difference between the subsidy and the rent charged (typically no more than 30% of their income). In general a household’s income may not exceed 50% of the area median income.

Question 46

HOPE VI program (1993)

Answer 46

provides funds from the federal government to states and communities to assist in constructing or rehabilitating affordable housing for those at 60% area median income or less. The program may also provide direct rental assistance. * Formalized in 1998 to remove the worst public housing projects * Provided federal funds to demolish obsolete high-rise public housing units and replace with public-private mixed income developments * Public housing can be owned by private entities BUT PHAs (public housing authorities) had the right of 1st refusal of purchaser of public housing * Housing is not replaced 1 to 1 → current experts criticize the program, because the demolition contributed to housing deficit

Question 47

Affordable housing

Answer 47

housing that is affordable to low and moderate income households according to area median income.

Question 48

% of household income and how much they can afford per month

Answer 48

30%

Question 49

Homelessness

Answer 49

“An individual who (1) lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence and (2) has a primary nighttime residents that is (a) a supervised, publicly or privately operated shelter designed to provide temporary living accommodations (including welfare hotels, congregate shelters, and transitional housing for the mentally ill), (b) an institution that provides a temporary residence for individuals intended to be institutionalized, or (c) a public or private place not designed for or ordinarily used as a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings

Question 50

Housing need

Answer 50

is understanding the demand side for housing. Information on a community’s householder age, household size, household income, transportation costs and many other factors help to define what the housing need is in a certain community.

Question 51

Zombie subdivisions

Answer 51

unfinished housing developments with at least some infrastructure in place that were left unfinished after the housing bubble burst.

Question 52

expanded the law to include people with disabilities and family status (protects children under 18) - made it illegal for apartment complexes, except those operated for senior citizens, to discriminate against families * made it illegal to deny loans for purchasing, construction, improvement, or maintenance of a dwelling * overall, prohbiits housign discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, disability, familial status, adn national origin

Answer 52

1988 Fair Housing Act

Question 53

* Black residents were a part of the workforce but not allowed to live in the towns that they built * Part of 1930s New Deal, maintained a policy of institutionalized segregation and discrimination against blacks; Many tightly-knit Black communities were taken over by the TVA in development of TVA dams, such as the Norris dam * Houses in the newly planned TVA constructed community of Norris, TN built to house workers building Norris Dam on the Clinch River were also out of financial reach of those who were displaced by eminent domain, even though it was based on the Garden Cities movement. TVA officials excluded Black families from the town, based on income, and claimed that this was done to conform to the customs and traditions of the area * Fontana, NC - Black workers were met by assault and threats of lynching and an attempt to burn down the housing for Black residents ;TVA officials stopped the mob but Black workers left the dam site because of continued hostility ## Footnote Norris, Tennessee and Fontana, NC

Answer 53

Housing Discrimination in Tennessee Valley Authority

Question 54

Preventing Homelessness

Answer 54

effective planning will need to embrace mainstream programs and providers, such as * Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, * Community Health Centers, * Public Housing Authorities, and * Medicaid, to develop prevention strategies. * rapid re-housing programs

Question 55

The largest interest an owner can have in real property is referred to as ------; gives the right to dispose of the interest in the land or pass it onto his heirs; they can be taxed or taken by eminent domain by the government

Answer 55

fee simple estate

Question 56

Which U.S. housing act or legislation has been most successful at encouraging home ownership?

Answer 56

Mortgage interest tax deduction: allows taxpayers who own their homes to reduce their taxable income[1] by the amount of interest paid on the loan which is secured by their principal residence (or, sometimes, a second home). The mortgage deduction makes home purchases more attractive, but contributes to higher house prices.

Question 57

The Section 8 Housing Program was established in 1974 with the approval by Congress of the

Answer 57

Community Development Block Grant program Housing and Community Development Act of 1974amended the Housing Act of 1937 to create the Section 8 housing program. Section 8 of the Housing Act authorizes the payment of rental housing assistance to private landlords on behalf of approximately 3.1 million low-income households in the United States. The largest part of the section is the Housing Choice Voucher program which pays a large portion of the rents and utilities of about 2.1 million households