UCLA Housing Voice

In the years leading up to the Global Financial Crisis, Spain’s housing prices doubled and its immigrant population increased by 1000%. How did immigrants fare when the market crashed? Carlos Delclós joins us to discuss the “citizen gradient” among Spanish citizens, EU citizens living in Spain, and non-EU citizens and how citizenship status influences housing precarity and displacement outcomes.Show notes:Delclós, C. (2022). The burden of the border: Precarious citizenship experiences in the wake of the Spanish housing crash. European Urban and Regional Studies.Ealham, C. (2010). Anarchism and the City: Revolution and Counter-revolution in Barcelona, 1898–1937. AK Press.https://doi.org/10.1177/09697764221136092Interactive FRED graph of real residential property prices for select countries, including Spain.Gonick, S. L. (2021). Dispossession and Dissent: Immigrants and the Struggle for Housing in Madrid. Stanford University Press.Clair, A., Reeves, A., McKee, M., & Stuckler, D. (2019). Constructing a housing precariousness measure for Europe. Journal of European Social Policy, 29(1), 13-28.Kain, J. F., & Quigley, J. M. (1972). Housing market discrimination, home-ownership, and savings behavior. The American Economic Review, 62(3), 263-277.Taylor, K. Y. (2019). Race for Profit: How banks and the real estate industry undermined black homeownership. UNC Press Books.Yiftachel, O. (2020). From displacement to displaceability: A southeastern perspective on the new metropolis. City, 24(1-2), 151-165.Caroz-Armayones, J. M., Benach, J., Delclós, C., & Julià, M. (2022). The double burden of precariousness: linking housing, employment, and perceived stress–a cross-sectional study. International Journal of Environmental Health Research, 1-10.Housing Voice ep. 49 with Sorcha Edwards, on sustaining and growing Europe’s social housing.

It’s difficult to sustain a social housing program, but it’s even harder to build one from scratch. Housing Europe, a coalition of social, public, and cooperative housing providers, is trying to do both. Sorcha Edwards, who serves as Secretary General of Housing Europe, joins us to share their efforts to expand the footprint of non-profit and limited-profit housing across the continent — maintaining established programs like those in Austria and Finland, and growing them in places like Spain, where only about 1% of housing units are rented social housing. We also discuss the International Social Housing Festival, happening this year in Barcelona on June 7-9, and the lessons and inspiration that can be drawn from practitioners around the globe.Show notes:Report: The State of Housing in Europe, 2021. Housing Europe.More about Matongé, Brussels: Matonge, an African home in Brussels.Website for the International Social Housing Festival, in Barcelona June 7-9, 2023.Website for the Het Schip Social Housing Museum.O’Sullivan, F. (July 16 2020). To Fill Vacant Units, Barcelona Seizes Apartments. Bloomberg.Phillips, S. (April 18 2023). To improve housing affordability, Spain needs more rental housing. International Social Housing Festival blog post.

Housing is the largest source of wealth for most U.S. households, and wealth influences household decisions and opportunities in myriad ways. One is work: when people experience a significant loss of wealth, such as during an economic recession, they may remain in the workforce longer than planned, or even come out of retirement and return to work. But housing wealth is different from a stock portfolio or other assets, and previous research has failed to establish clear links between rising or falling home values and retirement decisions. Jaclene Begley joins us to discuss new research that establishes a connection, but with surprising nuances. We discuss what makes housing wealth unique, and the ways it affects work and retirement decisions differently for men than women, when home values rise rather than fall, and when housing wealth declines a little rather than a lot. We also step back and talk about the broader consequences of relying on housing as most households' primary source of wealth and retirement nest egg.Show notes:Begley, J., & Chan, S. (2018). The effect of housing wealth shocks on work and retirement decisions. Regional Science and Urban Economics, 73, 180-195.Quigley, J. M., & Raphael, S. (2004). Is housing unaffordable? Why isn't it more affordable? Journal of Economic Perspectives, 18(1), 191-214.

Does gentrification lead to increased displacement of vulnerable low-income households? To date, research findings have been surprisingly mixed. One explanation may be that most gentrification studies focus on individual cities, which vary substantially from place to place, or the entire U.S., which may overlook local or regional differences. Hyojung Lee joins us to discuss his new study with coauthor Kristin Perkins which categorizes the country into eight unique geographies according to shared characteristics, searching for differences in how gentrification impacts displacement of low-income households. It persuasively finds that gentrification does lead to more household moves — and importantly, more downward moves — and can hopefully inform further research and more location-appropriate anti-displacement strategies.Show notes:Lee, H., & Perkins, K. L. (2022). The geography of gentrification and residential mobility. Social Forces, soac086.Read more about the Cheonggyecheon freeway removal here.Freeman, L., & Braconi, F. (2004). Gentrification and displacement New York City in the 1990s. Journal of the American Planning Association, 70(1), 39-52.Ellen, I. G., & O'Regan, K. (2011). Gentrification: Perspectives of economists and planners. The Oxford Handbook of Urban Economics and Planning, 371–391.Hwang, J., & Ding, L. (2020). Unequal displacement: gentrification, racial stratification, and residential destinations in Philadelphia. American Journal of Sociology, 126(2), 354-406.UCLA Housing Voice podcast episode 7 with Kristin Perkins.UCLA Housing Voice podcast episode 12 with Elizabeth Delmelle.

Manufactured housing is the largest source of unsubsidized affordable housing in the U.S., and one of the only ways that low-income households are able to access homeownership. Due to a mix of public policies and social stigma, these homes are often found in manufactured housing communities, colloquially known as mobile home parks or trailer parks — and in recent years, these communities have increasingly been under threat by predatory investors or by closures, whether for redevelopment or otherwise. Esther Sullivan joins us to discuss her ethnographic research on the closure of mobile home communities in Florida and Texas and how residents experience eviction in both states. She finds that while Florida offers more protections and financial support to mobile home owners compared to Texas, Florida residents are not necessarily better off. Her work highlights the potential downsides to public policies that operate through the private sector, and the need to center the recipients of public services in policy-making and program design.Show notes:Sullivan, E. (2017). Displaced in Place: Manufactured housing, mass eviction, and the paradox of state intervention. American Sociological Review, 82(2), 243-269.Sullivan, E. (2018). Manufactured Insecurity: Mobile home parks and Americans’ tenuous right to place. Univ of California Press.Schmitz Jr, J. A., Teixeira, A., & Wright, M. L. (2018). How HUD and NAHB Created the US Housing Crisis. Presentation to a Conference to Celebrate Edward C. Prescott.Pendall, R., Puentes, R., & Martin, J. (2006). From traditional to reformed: A review of the land use regulations in the nation’s 50 largest metropolitan areas. Brookings Institution.UCLA Housing Voice Podcast episode 43 on the origins of redlining with Todd Michney.

In 2016, Auckland, New Zealand did something nearly unprecedented in the English-speaking world: It upzoned the majority of land in the city, and not just for three or four units per parcel. They went much further than that, and by one estimate increased the legal capacity for housing in the city by 300%. The goal of the reform, known as the Auckland Unitary Plan, was to increase production of multifamily housing and slow or stop rapidly rising housing prices. Did they succeed? Ryan Greenaway-McGrevy has published several studies on the results approximately five years later, and the news is quite good. We talk through the details of what Auckland did and the impact it had, and the lessons it holds for other cities considering (or hoping for) similar reforms. Taking Auckland’s lead, New Zealand adopted even more aggressive housing reforms in 2021, and we discuss that too.Show notes:Greenaway-McGrevy, R., Pacheco, G., & Sorensen, K. (2021). The effect of upzoning on house prices and redevelopment premiums in Auckland, New Zealand. Urban studies, 58(5), 959-976.Greenaway-McGrevy, R., & Phillips, P. C. (2022). The Impact of Upzoning on Housing Construction in Auckland. Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers, 2689.Map of post-upzoning residential zones in Auckland.Charts showing housing permit activity before and after upzoning in upzoned and non-upzoned areas: Figure 3 and Figure 5.Garcia, D., & Alameldin, M. (2023). California’s HOME Act Turns One: Data and Insights from the First Year of Senate Bill 9. UC Berkeley Terner Center for Housing Innovation.UCLA Housing Voice episode with Evan Mast on supply affects and demand/amenity affects associated with new construction.Phillips, S., Manville, M., & Lens, M. (2021). Research Roundup: The effect of market-rate development on neighborhood rents. UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies.Greenaway-McGrevy, R. (Jul 7 2016). Ryan Greenaway-McGrevy: Density the only win-win situation for Auckland. New Zealand Herald.UCLA Housing Voice episode with Dan Kuhlmann on impact on house and land prices when Minneapolis eliminated single-family zoning citywide.UCLA Housing Voice episode with Evan Mast on market-rate development and neighborhood rents.

HOPE VI was a federal program running from 1993–2010 that sought to redevelop distressed, poor, racially segregated public housing into mixed-income communities. In that time it helped build nearly 100,000 new homes for people of varying incomes, and with the involvement of both the public and private sectors. Its goal was to reduce concentrated poverty and racial segregation; so how did it do? Rebekah Levine Coley joins us to share her research into the impacts of HOPE VI redevelopment on neighborhood poverty, racial composition, and community resources. We also discuss the lessons from earlier generations of public housing and urban renewal that informed HOPE VI, and what the program can tell us about gentrification, displacement, the role of the private sector, and much more.Show notes:Coley, R. L., Spielvogel, B., Hwang, D., Lown, J., & Teixeira, S. (2022). Did HOPE VI Move Communities to Opportunity? How Public Housing Redevelopment Affected Neighborhood Poverty, Racial Composition, and Resources 1990–2016. Housing Policy Debate, 1-32.Phillips, S. (2020). The Affordable City: Strategies for Putting Housing Within Reach (and Keeping it There). Island Press. (Use promo code PHILLIPS for 20% off.)Fulton, W. (2022). Place and Prosperity: How Cities Help Us to Connect and Innovate. Island Press.Wilson, W. J. (1987). The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass, and Public Policy. University of Chicago Press.Crane, J. (1991). The epidemic theory of ghettos and neighborhood effects on dropping out and teenage childbearing. American journal of Sociology, 96(5), 1226-1259.Goetz, E. G. (2013). New Deal Ruins: Race, economic justice, and public housing policy. Cornell University Press.Goetz, E. G. (2013). The Audacity of HOPE VI: Discourse and the dismantling of public housing. Cities, 35, 342-348.A great source of additional background and data on the HOPE VI program: Gress, T., Cho, S., & Joseph, M. (2016). HOPE VI data compilation and analysis. National Initiative on Mixed-Income Communities, Case Western Reserve University.

In recent years, the story of residential segregation and discrimination — and especially the practice of redlining — has gained well-deserved prominence in U.S. housing discourse. Equally important, the federal government has been directly implicated in the development and institutionalization of redlining and similar practices. A key early player in this history is the Home Owners Loan Corporation, or HOLC, which commissioned the infamous “residential security” maps that separated residential neighborhoods into four categories, from green (best) to red (worst), based in no small part on racist assumptions about Black residents and homeowners — this is the origin of the word “redlining.” But while HOLC unquestionably has culpability in the racial disparities of the U.S. housing market, Todd Michney argues that the connection between HOLC and the institutionalization of redlining isn’t as direct or uncomplicated as is usually claimed. He shares the findings of historical research into the early days of HOLC’s housing market rescue efforts, and casts doubt on the commonly-told story about the origins of redlining.Show notes:Michney, T. M., & Winling, L. (2020). New perspectives on new deal housing policy: Explicating and mapping HOLC loans to African Americans. Journal of Urban History, 46(1), 150-180.Winling, L. C., & Michney, T. M. (2021). The roots of redlining: academic, governmental, and professional networks in the making of the new deal lending regime. Journal of American History, 108(1), 42-69.Michney, T. M. (2021). How the City Survey’s Redlining Maps Were Made: A Closer Look at HOLC’s Mortgagee Rehabilitation Division. Journal of Planning History, 15385132211013361.Michney, T. M. (2017). Surrogate Suburbs: Black upward mobility and neighborhood change in Cleveland, 1900–1980. UNC Press Books.Surrogate Suburbs bus tour route!Jackson, K. T. (1987). Crabgrass Frontier: The suburbanization of the United States. Oxford University Press.Hillier, A. E. (2003). Who Received Loans? Home Owners’ Loan Corporation lending and discrimination in Philadelphia in the 1930s. Journal of Planning history, 2(1), 3-24.Mapping Inequality: Redlining in New Deal America.Glock, J. E. (2021). The Dead Pledge: The Origins of the Mortgage Market and Federal Bailouts, 1913–1939. Columbia University Press.

Social housing — housing built for limited or no profit, often with government support — came to account for huge portions of the housing market in many Western European countries following World War II, but its prominence has declined since the 1980s, when many governments began to shift their housing investments away from construction and toward direct financial support for renters. This shift is arguably one cause of the housing affordability crisis many cities find themselves in today, but in the face of opposing trends, two cities stand out for maintaining and even growing their social housing stock: Vienna and Helsinki. In this episode, Justin Kadi shares the history, policies, and politics that have contributed to the “remarkable stability” of these two cities’ social housing programs, and offers an incredible overview of how social housing is planned, financed, built, and operated in the places it’s been most successful.Show notes:Kadi, J., & Lilius, J. (2022). The remarkable stability of social housing in Vienna and Helsinki: a multi-dimensional analysis. Housing Studies, 1-25.Eliason, M. (2021). Unlocking livable, resilient, decarbonized housing with Point Access Blocks. Larch Lab.Housing Voice ep. 32 with Diego Gil, on Chile’s shift toward a more neoliberal and demand-side housing policy framework.Housing Voice ep. 28 with Chua Beng Huat, on Singapore’s highly centralized public housing program.A brief history of “Red Vienna,” a product of the political victory of the Social Democratic Party in the early 1900s which led to tax reform and heavy public investment in housing.

Shared-equity homeownership programs help low- and moderate-income people afford buying a home, but they come with a catch. In exchange for help with your loan or a discount on your purchase, you need to pay back the government when you sell. That leaves them with less money to buy their next home, so many who participate in shared-equity programs end up stuck in place or back on the rental market. As William Cheung and Kelvin Wong put it, these programs provide great “entry affordability,” but participants struggle with “exit affordability” when they want to move out of subsidized housing and buy on the private market. We discuss their research into shared-equity ownership programs in six different countries, including the U.S., and how reforms might help more homebuyers or improve household mobility — but probably not both.Show notes:Cheung, K. S., & Wong, S. K. (2019). Entry and exit affordability of shared equity homeownership: an international comparison. International Journal of Housing Markets and Analysis.Read here about the San Francisco Downpayment Assistance Loan Program (which is now discontinued).Cheung, K. S., Wong, S. K., Chau, K. W., & Yiu, C. Y. (2021). The Misallocation Problem of Subsidized Housing: A Lesson from Hong Kong. Sustainability, 13(4), 1855.