Digital Commons Network^™

The Rise And Fall Of Airbnb In New York, Nomin J. Ujiyediin

Capstones

The homesharing website Airbnb has been a controversial presence in New York City and New York state for years. This capstone explores the company's political contributions, lobbying and public relations strategies in the city and the state.

A link to the project can be found here: http://nominuj.com/airbnb

Homeless Hotels In New York: Who Benefits From The Industry’S Side Business?, Suman Bhattacharyya

Capstones

One in ten of New York City’s 60,000 homeless population lives in a commercial hotel. Commercial hotels are part of a parallel shelter system run by non-profits acting on behalf of the city’s homeless services department. The move to house homeless New Yorkers is a direct outgrowth of the city’s homeless crisis, the severity of which many say the city hasn’t seen the likes of in decades. Based on a review of publicly-available 990 filings, recent comptroller audits and interviews with key stakeholders, this study examines how the city runs the parallel commercial shelter system and which entities stand to …

Essays On Regional Amenities And Public Policies, Elena Andreyeva

Economics Dissertations

This dissertation investigates how alterations in government policies affect the level of, and access to, public amenities, and how outcomes vary across space. The first essay sheds light on whether the recentralization of political institutions in Russia affected the provision of regional public services. First, I exploit regional variation in governors’ party affiliation to assess the impact of a uniform change in political institutions towards more centralization on the level of public services provision across states. Second, I investigate whether the combined effect, recentralization and party affiliation, is different among local and global public services. I find that a change …

Housing First In Canada: A New Approach To Homelessness And Best Practices For Municipal Implementation, Shelly Steffler

MPA Major Research Papers

This paper assesses the Housing First approach to homelessness, which provides people living on the street with permanent homes before offering them optional support, as opposed to the traditional approach to housing, where people need to meet certain conditions, such as sobriety, before being assisted to obtain housing. It uses case studies from Medicine Hat, Alberta and Toronto to explore the implementation of Housing First in two Canadian cities. The paper concludes by providing best practices and offering cautions for municipalities considering this approach. The case studies indicate that data collection, stakeholder engagement, a systems approach, and support from all …

Housing And Abstinence Self-Efficacy In Formerly Incarcerated Individuals, Christopher R. Whipple

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Formerly-incarcerated individuals with substance use disorders face many barriers upon release from prison. In order to avoid returning to substance use and prison, these individuals must successfully navigate the re-entry process, which includes finding adequate housing and avoiding substance use. As abstinence self-efficacy, or confidence to abstain from substance use, has been found to predict better substance use outcomes, it is important to understand the relation between housing situations and abstinence self-efficacy in formerly-incarcerated individuals. This study examined the role that time spent in various housing situations, including controlled, recovery, independent, precarious, and homeless situations, affect abstinence self-efficacy. Two hundred …

Thinking Past Tomorrow: An Analysis Of Policy Efforts To Reduce Homelessness In King County, Washington, Andrew R. Bell

Honors Projects

Homelessness and housing have become central issues in King County, Washington in recent years. This paper analyzes policies across multiple levels of government, and discusses the ways in which they have impacted homeless people in King County. This paper finds support for the idea that geographical disparity in resources has contributed to some of the challenges that King County and Seattle have experienced in their attempts to reduce homelessness.

Broadcasting The Crisis: Spanish Television As Critique, Eva Velasco Pena

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Television is often thought of as monolithic and totalizing, controlling viewers and upholding the status quo. This project will propose different understandings of the mass-medium. In order to historically contextualize my study, I will begin with a brief discussion of the role of television in democratic Spain (from c.1978-present). The thesis will primarily consist of an analysis of two sides of contemporary Spanish TV: fiction and politics; and will explore the way that certain programs, alternately catalyze critical thought and actions or enable spectators to, following John Ellis, “work through” traumatic events. I furthermore propose that imaging a concept might …

Accessory Dwelling Units In College Towns: An Innovative Option To Increase Housing Supply For Students And Seniors, Emily Clare Foley

City and Regional Planning

No abstract provided.

The Experiences Of Adults With Severe And Persistent Mental Illness And Long-Term Housing, Heather Hurner

Master of Social Work Clinical Research Papers

This paper examines the barriers that adults with a severe and persistent mental illness (SPMI) may experience when they approach securing and maintaining long-term hous- ing. According to Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAM- HSA, 2011), around 30% of persons who experience chronic homelessness have a mental health condition, and of that group 50% also experience problems with co-occurring sub- stance use. This article utilized six qualitative interviews with service providers who work with this population and housing in some aspect. This study found that relationships between service providers and both landlords and clients play an important role …

Monhegan: A Prescription For Resilience, Kenneth Paul Kiel Gross

Muskie School Capstones and Dissertations

Monhegan, like many island communities, is threatened by the loss of population as its young adults migrate to the mainland. The purpose of this study is to develop a resilient population on Monhegan Island.

Knowing the problem is easy, as is asking the obvious question, “How do we get people to move to this area?” This is a problem that confronts not only Monhegan, but also other Maine islands and even Maine itself.

Several factors make Monhegan’s future uncertain. The first is the gradual shift from commercial fishing, the mainstay of its economy, as it becomes more reliant on tourism …

The Effect Of Athletic Stadiums On Communities, With A Focus On Housing, Dominique Wilkins

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

ABSTRACT: The purpose of this research is to examine the role of athletic stadiums in the gentrification of minority neighborhoods. New athletic stadiums have increasingly been constructed in low- and moderate- income areas with high minority populations, and results in the displacement of that community’s longstanding residents. This paper uses Census and American Community Survey (ACS) data as part of a case study of the Washington Nationals Stadium in Washington DC; the data shows that within a few years of construction, the community that previously boasted an affordable housing stock and a high low-income minority population is replaced with high-income, …

Family, Housing, And The Political Geography Of Gay Liberation In Los Angeles County, 1960-1986, Ian M. Baldwin

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study examines the gay liberation movement in Los Angeles County through the lens of housing rights. It illustrates how sexual justice activism evolved in tandem with the fates of the welfare state and urban politics. Like racial minorities, queers have been stymied by economic barriers. Beginning in the 1930s, federal housing agencies established “family” requirements to housing subsidies, which the state defined through biology or marriage. In L.A. County, activists worked to overcome this heteronormative barrier at the grassroots and within the political establishment. Binding gay liberation to economic and family justice, queers opened housing shelters and social service …

Historic Preservation As Social Justice: Analyzing Historic Charleston Foundation's Elliottborough Neighborhood Impact Initiative, Lourdes Naomi Doddington

All Theses

While scholars debate the causes of gentrification and some question if it exists, the revitalization of inner-city neighborhoods more often than not results in the displacement of many of its residents. Failure to engage the unintended consequences of gentrification are world-wide. Some policy-makers embraced gentrification as a panacea for all their city's problems. The displacement of the urban poor and lower-middle class weakens not only their bonds with generations of community but also the character of the neighborhood which attracted the gentrifiers in the first place. Grassroots organizations have attempted anti-displacement efforts by in many places, but there have been …

Towards A Localized Form-Based Code For Abu Dhabi Urban Neighborhoods, Arwa Khalid Sabri

Theses

Form-Based Code (FBC) is a sustainable planning tool that helps realize sustainable urban form and sustainable communities from different perspectives, including mixing of land uses, diversifying housing types, achieving walkability and cycling as well as permitting community involvement in decision making and design processes. It is therefore considered as a comprehensive tool that regulates different planning scales from master plan to individual buildings. Locally, Abu Dhabi Emirate lacks a FBC that could help achieve its sustainability-orientated 2030 vision and thus promote its envisaged sustainable urban identity. This research aims at studying to what extent the present form-related standards and guidelines …

Forecasting Competencies For College And University Chief Housing Officers In The United States: A Delphi Study, Brian L. Fitzgerald

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This study started with the simple proposition that it would be useful to forecast the competencies that will be required for chief housing officers in the future. Housing and residence life is a relatively young profession and began with the rise of what is commonly understood to be college personnel work and now known as student affairs.

Student affairs as a profession within higher education began to gain recognition in the 1940s. The identification of governing ethics, standards and competencies gained momentum and clarification in the succeeding year. Housing and residence life as part of the student affairs enterprise was …

H.F. Hauff Pruner Housing & Ergonomics, Erich E. Heilman

All Undergraduate Projects

The technology of electric tree pruners in the current agricultural market has many engineering problems, including; a deficit in power output, excessive overheating, and ergonomics. The 3-man pruner team has coordinated with H.F. Hauff Co. Inc., an agricultural equipment company owned by Neil Hauff, to produce an electric pruner prototype which addresses these problems. The methods used to design the optimal pruner prototype includes traditional engineering stress analysis, force flow analysis, finite element software, and Solidworks modeling software. The construction of the pruner involved manual machining methods and C.N.C. (Computerized Numerical Control) mill technology. During the design process, the team …

Oppression, Manifesting From A Government Mission Of Positive Social Change, David Palmer Ramstad

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Government social interventions hold considerable power over what choices and opportunities impoverished households have available to escape the oppressive socioeconomic trappings of poverty. The U.S. Internal Revenue Service’s Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) is one such program. While there are many positive mission statements of social governance, this study focused on the regressive potential for oppressive institutional policies and practices. Theoretical frameworks guiding the study were Pierce’s 1979 model of oppression and Crenshaw’s 1989 intersectionality theory. The quantitative design’s hypothesis and research question focused on whether significant relationships exist between LIHTC project placement and highest concentrations of six commonly …

Essays In Health Economics, Nayan Krishna Joshi

Wayne State University Dissertations

My dissertation consists of three essays in health economics. In the first essay, I use the matched data set constructed from the Consumer Expenditure Survey and the Survey of Consumer Finances for period 1989-2010 to investigate the impacts of housing and financial wealth on healthcare spending. The results indicate significant housing and financial wealth effects and relatively large housing wealth effects for the pooled sample. Results for each survey years of the Survey of Consumer Finances further suggest that housing wealth effects are significant for all years and relatively large, but financial wealth effects are insignificant in most cases. Analysis …

Identifying Spatial Process Of Vacant Housing In Buffalo Core Urban Area, Yutian Feng

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

With the fact that vacant houses contribute to decline of living environment, understanding spatial distribution and agents of vacant house behind that spatial pattern is necessary for policy-makers to better work out proactive plans. An agreement that vacant buildings are not only symptomatic of other problems but even contributes to neighborhood decline. Thus, this paper will examine spatial characteristics of the compact and contiguous Buffalo urban district through three steps. First, we will test if there is spatial auto-correlation of vacant houses throughout the whole study area by global Moran’s I. Secondly, the Ordinary Least Square Regression Model without considering …

Racial Segregation: Slum Clearance And Urban Renewal In Birmingham, Alabama, 1950-1960, Michael Barrett

All ETDs from UAB

RESIDENTIAL SEGREGATION: SLUM CLEARANCE AND URBAN RENEWAL IN BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA, 1950-1960 MICHAEL D. BARRETT HISTORY ABSTRACT In his Letter from a Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King, Jr. referred to Birmingham, Alabama as the “Most segregated city in America.” The city’s history of racial subjugation and conflict certainly validates King’s statement. Yet should Birmingham stand alone when it comes to racial segregation through the auspices of federal housing programs? The Housing Act of 1949 provided federal funds for slum clearance and urban renewal projects in city centers. Title I of the Act gave local housing agencies authority to determine the areas …