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Housing Data Analysis and Policy Outcomes
At What Cost? An Analysis of Housing Affordability in Detroit: This report addresses the issue of housing affordability, utilizing 2000 Census sample data (SF3 file) to determine how many renters and homeowners face affordability problems. The overriding conclusion of the data analysis is that a significant number of Detroit residents­both renters and homeowners­face affordability problems. Almost one-third of Detroit.s households (32% or 102,282 households) faced cost burdens (i.e. spent 30% or more of their income on housing costs) in 2000. About half this amount (17% or 53,884 households) faced severe cost burdens (i.e. spent 50% or more of their income on housing costs). These numbers and percentages greatly exceed those of comparison areas in the region, state, and nation. The other major finding from the affordability analysis is that while both the cost of housing and income of the household impact affordability, low income appears to be the more dominant factor influencing both rental and homeowner affordability problems in Detroit. The report discusses policy options for addressing the affordability problem.

Strategic Geographic Targeting of Housing and Community Development Resources: A Review of Empirical Findings and a Conceptual Framework: In an era of limited resources for addressing housing and community development needs, determining how to most effectively allocate those resources is a constant challenge for city decision makers. One allocation approach is targeting. This paper, presented at the 2003 Urban Affairs Association conference, examines the potential impact of, and motivation behind, strategic geographic targeting of housing and community development resources. It presents a conceptual framework of the rationale for strategic geographic targeting, integrating the findings from the empirical literature as appropriate. It also presents some criteria that might be useful for determining what areas should be targeted under such an approach.

Detroit Housing Issues and Policy Options: This report was produced at the request of the Detroit City Planning Commission as part of the 2001-2002 CDBG/NOF evaluation contract. It is part of a longer-term project to create a housing needs assessment. It combines demographic, housing, and policy data from reports that our research team has recently released to the Planning Commission and Detroit City Council with new findings from analyses of data on private home lending, reviews of over 100 articles and studies on housing and community development, interviews with key stakeholders, and investigations of housing programs implemented across the country.

ANALYSIS OF DETROIT.S CENSUS 2000 SF1 (100% COUNT) DATA BY MASTER PLANNING SECTOR:This report summarizes pertinent housing-related Detroit data extracted from the Census 2000 SF1 dataset, which contains the responses for all questions asked on the Census 2000 short form. The data cover basic demographic information (e.g. age, race, family characteristics) for the population; basic household (e.g. number and size) and householder (e.g. age, race, family status, and tenure) information; and the occupancy status, and number of, housing units. We present the analysis in four sections--Housing Supply, Population Size and Occupancy, Population Race and Age, and Population/Household Family and Marital Status. Each section has two components--a data section and a implications section. Within each data section, we have analyzed data for the city as a whole and by Master Planning Sector. We present the general findings, discuss variations by planning sector, and review changes that have occurred since 1990. In some sections we have provided comparative data for the nation, state, and metro area.

Housing Needs Assessment Policy Discussion: Employer-Assisted Housing:This document provides an overview of employer-assisted housing (EAH) programs. It is the first detailed policy discussion document produced as part of the housing assessment project. The document includes a general description of EAH programs, their potential benefits, the roles that various organizations can play in EAH programs, and a discussion of lessons learned from EAH programs implemented across the country. It also includes some options for City involvement in EAH programs in Detroit. The appendix to the report contains descriptions of over forty EAH programs being implemented across the country.

American Planning Association: Affordable Housing Reader:With the support of the Fannie Mae Foundation, APA has assembled more than 100 documents and articles from APA publications that examine the affordable housing problem in the U.S. and identify and evaluate various solutions. These articles appear in this Affordable Housing Reader, which is accessible to all visitors to the APA website. Until now, many of these selections have been available solely to APA subscribers or are out of print.

The reader comprises articles from JAPA, Planning, PAS Reports, and several other APA publications in addition to APA policy documents and court briefs. Learn about the challenges to affordable housing and share in the successes.

Detroit Residential Building Permit Activity from 2000-2003:This report discusses residential building permit activity in Detroit from 2000 to 2003. It is designed to help determine the amount, type, and cost of residential building maintenace, improvement, construction, and demolition activity citywide and by CRS cluster. The report was produced by the CDBG evaluation research team from Wayne State Univerity's Center for Urban Studies as part of our continuing analysis of housing data for the City of Detroit Planning Commission. The analysis was made possible through through the funding from the City Planning Commission and the Planning and Development Department's recent effort to make building permit data available to the general public.