Category: Housing

Resource Category Topic Type
"Not very many options for the people who are working here"
In this brief, we use interview and focus group data to describe some of the ways that restricted rural housing stock affects working families in two rural New England counties, and explore solutions proposed by rural residents and experts to make housing affordable (see Box 1 on page 2). Rural amenities and scenery make residence in certain New England regions desirable for second-home owners, vacationers, and retirees. However, the use of housing for these purposes, combined with efforts to conserve acreage and preserve scenery, serves to diminish the supply of housing, making it unaffordable for many low- and moderate-income residents. Moreover, the housing that is available varies in quality, and regional nonprofit and federal housing assistance programs lack the capacity to meet all residents’ needs.
 Vulnerable Families Research Program Housing, Rural, Safety Net Publication
Advancing Decarbonization in Regulated Multifamily Affordable Housing
The policy levers contained in this working paper outline a series of steps that can be taken to advance decarbonization today, create sustainable systems change, and climate align housing for our future.
 Center for Impact Finance Community Development Finance, Housing Publication
CDFIs Can Make the SBA PPP Loan Program Work for Smaller, Minority-Owned, and Women-Owned, Small Businesses
As currently being implemented by the Small Business Administration, the loans made available through the $349 billion Paycheck Protection Program, part of the CARES Act recently enacted to address the COVID-19 crisis, are likely to significantly bypass smaller small businesses and those that are minority- or women-owned.
Center for Impact Finance, COVID-19 Community Development, Community Development Finance, COVID-19, Economic Development, Housing, Low Income Publication
Experience of the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund in Mainstreaming of Acquisition Loans to Cooperative Manufactured Housing Communities, The
This study aimed to provide evidence of the extent to which a financial product―land acquisition loans for manufactured home parks―performed well and was adopted by mainstream financial institutions. The study hypothesized that The New Hampshire Community Loan Fund’s effective introduction of the new loan product, coupled with excellent loan performance, led banks to adopt the loan product.
Evaluation, New Hampshire Economic Development, Housing, New Hampshire Publication
Homeless Teens and Young Adults in New Hampshire (co-publication with the Children's Alliance of New Hampshire)
More than 1,000 adolescents and young adults in New Hampshire are homeless, and their numbers are growing. The brief, co-published with the Children's Alliance of New Hampshire, provides an estimate of homeless youth in New Hampshire calculated from national and state data and describes the needs of homeless youth based on interviews and a survey of providers of homeless services in the state.
 Evaluation, New Hampshire, Vulnerable Families Research Program Family, Housing, New Hampshire, Young Adults Publication
Household Reports of Energy Assistance Receipt Increased 48 Percent During Recession: Proposed Cuts Threaten Vulnerable Families
This brief examines heating assistance usage and the implications of President Obama's 2012 budget proposal to cut $2.5 billion from the $5.1 billion energy assistance fund for low-income families at a time when families are struggling with higher energy costs amid a difficult economy. The federal Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) assists vulnerable families in paying their home heating and cooling bills. Nationwide, from the winter of 2006/2007 to the winter of 2009/2010, there was a 48 percent increase in households receiving energy assistance. This growth appears to have accelerated with the recession, particularly in the rural Northeast and Midwest. Many more families are eligible than receive assistance. Brief author Jessica Carson discusses how proposed cuts would have a concrete and immediate impact on families, particularly those in rural areas and in harsh winter climates.
 Vulnerable Families Research Program Family, Housing, Poverty, Safety Net Publication
Permanent Supportive Housing as a Solution to Homelessness
In this perspectives brief, author Antonio Serna examines both the successful strategies and the challenges faced in implementing permanent supportive housing (PSH) in Massachusetts in the hope that these lessons will further PSH as a solution in other settings.
 Center for Social Policy in Practice Community, Housing Publication
Place Matters Challenges and Opportunities in Four Rural Americas
A survey of 7,800 rural Americans in 19 counties across the country has led to the Carsey Institute's first major publication that outlines four distinctly different rural Americas—amenity, decline, chronic poverty, and those communities in decline that are also amenity-rich—each has unique challenges in this modern era that will require different policies than their rural neighbors.
 Demography, Vulnerable Families Research Program Demography, Environment, Housing, Public Opinion, Race Publication
Renters More Often Burdened by Housing Costs After Recession: Nearly Half of All Renters Spent Over 30 Percent of Income on Housing by 2010
This brief uses data from the 2007 and 2010 American Community Survey to document changes in the proportion of household income spent on rental costs (rent plus utilities) during the Great Recession, by region (Northeast, Midwest, South, and West) and place type (rural, suburban, or central city location).
 Vulnerable Families Research Program Housing, Rural, Urban Publication
Resident Ownership in New Hampshire's "Mobile Home Parks": A Report on Economic Outcomes (revised 2010)
Since 1984, the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund has been helping residents of manufactured home communities purchase the land underneath their homes. Since then, homeowners have purchased 80 manufactured home communities and converted them into Resident Owned Communities (ROCs) in New Hampshire. These communities now include 4,200 homeowners.
 Evaluation, New Hampshire Economic Development, Housing, New Hampshire Publication
Rural Children Are More Likely to Live in Cohabiting-Couple Households
As cohabiting increases nationwide, new data show that the growing rate of children in these households is most pronounced in rural areas. This brief analyzes recent U.S. Census Bureau data to explore these trends and patterns.
Demography, Vulnerable Families Research Program Children, Demography, Housing, Rural, Young Adults Publication
Rural Children Now Less Likely to Live in Married-Couple Families
The percentage of rural children living in married-couple families dropped to 68 percent in 2008, one percentage point below that of children in metropolitan areas. In 1990, 76 percent of rural children and 72 percent of metropolitan-area children were living in married-couple families. But while marriage declined in both areas in the 1990s, urban rates bottomed out at 68 percent in 1998. The share of rural children living in married-couple families plunged from 73 percent in 2000 to 68 percent in 2008.
 Vulnerable Families Research Program Children, Family, Housing, Rural Publication
Southeastern Kentuckians Remain Optimistic Through Great Recession: Growing Concerns about Sprawl, Housing, and Recreational Opportunities
In May and June of 2007, Carsey Institute researchers surveyed 1,000 randomly selected respondents from Kentucky’s Harlan and Letcher counties, and between November 2010 and January 2011, they returned to survey 1,020 different randomly selected respondents from the same counties. These two Kentucky counties provide a snapshot of perceptions of community and environmental change in a chronically poor rural place. This brief focuses on the questions asked in both surveys to identify area wide (Harlan and Letcher counties combined) changes since the Great Recession. The surveys reveal that the recession has exacerbated concern about many community-level problems including poverty, affordable housing, sprawl, and a lack of recreational opportunities. Southeastern Kentuckians’ views regarding how environmental resources should be used have also changed. As the demand for jobs has increased, Harlan and Letcher county residents are more likely to believe that natural resources should be used for economic development rather than conserved for the future. Optimism about the future is unchanged despite growing financial instability during the recession. Author Jessica Ulrich concludes that as local, state, and federal government program budgets are cut, and poverty and unemployment rates rise, southeastern Kentuckians will need to increasingly rely on the support of other community members. She adds, “If communities keep faith that they can work together to solve pressing problems and obtain the social, human, and economic resources that they desperately need, then perhaps Harlan and Letcher counties can begin to escape from the persistent poverty that has been plaguing them for decades.”
 Vulnerable Families Research Program Community, Economic Development, Housing, Poverty, Public Opinion Publication