Inquiries (Vol.17)

Community Revitalization Standards and the Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program in the State of Texas

Megan Randall

ABSTRACT:

I examine whether housing developers in Texas are claiming points for community revitalization in the state’s annual Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) allocation process and whether the plans they submit constitute a meaningful revitalization effort in distressed neighborhoods. From 2012 to 2015, Texas successively adopted more robust standards for community revitalization in its LIHTC Qualified Allocation Plan (QAP), and saw an accompanying decline in applications seeking points on this provision. A content analysis of revitalization plans submitted in 2015, however, finds a discrepancy between the standard of comprehensiveness upheld in the literature on community revitalization and the revitalization strategies contained in the plans. I find that plans rely heavily on improvements to physical infrastructure, while neglecting the soft pillars of revitalization such as education and community capacity building. Additional revisions to the revitalization provision in the QAP may be necessary to ensure meaningful revitalization efforts in high-poverty communities selected for LIHTC housing in Texas.

Transregional Communities and the Regional Economy: A Case Study of Development in the Chaoshan Region, China

Rui Chen

ABSTRACT:

Communities are important intangible assets for regional development, yet current literature either overemphasizes local institutions and localized social networks or focuses on transnational Communities. In this study, I propose a transregional perspective on this issue and try to reveal how the transregional community is a facilitating mechanism for regional economic development. Based on the empirical case of the Chaoshan region in China, I find that transregional communities help a region construct relational proximity with other localities by building distant clusters, sustaining transregional transaction, creating transregional buzz, and initiating transregional start-ups. As a result, regions are able to obtain nonlocal assets to enhance their competitiveness in both domestic and global markets.

Keywords: Transregional communities; regional economic development; small and medium enterprises (SMEs); China

Subsidized Rental Housing in the United States: What We Know and What We Need to Learn in Three Themes

Jake Wegmann and Karen Christensen

ABSTRACT:

In the face of a severe and deepening affordable rental housing shortage in the United States, subsidized rental housing, though comprising a small portion of the housing stock, is a critical resource. In this study, we synthesize and summarize secondary research and opinions from eight leading experts on the broad currents of subsidized rental housing policy in the United States. We present the resulting lessons across three themes: the persistence of segregation; the disappointment of poverty deconcentration; and the elusiveness of access to opportunity. We seek to identify consensus on what is known, and point to what needs to be learned via future research.

Keywords: Housing policy; subsidized rental housing; housing segregation; poverty deconcentration; access to opportunity