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Social Welfare Law Commons

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Full-Text Articles in Social Welfare Law

Rights At Risk In Privatized Public Housing, Jaime Alison Lee Apr 2015

Rights At Risk In Privatized Public Housing, Jaime Alison Lee

All Faculty Scholarship

Traditional public housing is dwindling. Federal policy has increasingly encouraged privatization, shifting stewardship of public housing out of the hands of government and into the hands of private, for-profit companies. Privatization in this context has both benefits and risks. A particularly compelling area of study is the attempt by lawmakers to conscript private contractors into serving public policy goals. Private landlords are obligated not merely to provide housing, but to conduct themselves in ways that promote the interests of vulnerable people. The case of public housing suggests that legislative mandates and contractual obligations are not enough to assure this outcome, …


Comments: Private Investment: Trojan-Horse Or Shining Knight For America's Public Housing Stock, Andrew Balashov Jan 2015

Comments: Private Investment: Trojan-Horse Or Shining Knight For America's Public Housing Stock, Andrew Balashov

University of Baltimore Journal of Land and Development

The numbers are staggering. The nation's largest public housing authorities ("HA's") are in a state of crisis as a result of massive budget shortfalls. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) estimates it would take roughly $26 billion to remedy the problem. To put this in perspective, in 2014 the New York City Public Housing Authority had a $77 million deficit and $18 billion worth of "unfunded capital improvements," - a euphemism for basic upgrades to building systems such as water, heat, air conditioning, and elevators. At present, many of these systems are woefully below acceptable livability standards. This …


Settlement Equals Another Missed Opportunity For The Supreme Court To Define Disparate Impact Claims Under The Fair Housing Act, Erika Flaschner Jan 2014

Settlement Equals Another Missed Opportunity For The Supreme Court To Define Disparate Impact Claims Under The Fair Housing Act, Erika Flaschner

University of Baltimore Journal of Land and Development

In 2003, the New Jersey Township of Mount Holly designated a neighborhood known as the Gardens as a blighted, high crime area, and called for its redevelopment. The Township adopted a plan to demolish the Gardens and replace it with new residential units, of which only a fraction were designated for affordable housing. However, the predominately minority population of the Gardens filed suit to overturn the blight designation and stop the redevelopment plan on the grounds that the plan violated the Fair Housing Act (FHA) on a disparate impact theory.


"On The Take": The Black Box Of Credit Scoring And Mortgage Discrimination, Cassandra Jones Havard Apr 2011

"On The Take": The Black Box Of Credit Scoring And Mortgage Discrimination, Cassandra Jones Havard

All Faculty Scholarship

Subprime credit, a relatively new method of risk-based pricing, has been hailed as a way to open up markets and provide access to credit to those who would otherwise be excluded. Evidence suggests that subprime mortgage segmentation increases rather than reduces exclusionary practices in lending. Furthermore, what is unclear is how lenders determine who qualifies as a subprime borrower. This concern became manifested when studies demonstrated that minority borrowers, regardless of creditworthiness, are more likely to receive expensive, sub-prime loans. The disparity is properly attributed to lenders’ credit pricing policies which included discretionary increases despite the objectively-determined risk-based interest rate …


Public Land Banking And Mount Laurel Ii — Can There Be A Symbiotic Relationship?, Cassandra Jones Havard Apr 1984

Public Land Banking And Mount Laurel Ii — Can There Be A Symbiotic Relationship?, Cassandra Jones Havard

All Faculty Scholarship

The story behind the litigation that produced two decisions in Southern Burlington County NAACP v. Township of Mount Laurel may accurately be told in terms of plans having gone awry. The New Jersey Supreme Court invalidated the two attempts by Mount Laurel to regulate land through the implementation of fiscal zoning ordinances. In its most recent decision, Mount Laurel II, the court imposed upon communities a state constitutional obligation to provide adequate housing opportunities for low- and moderate-income families. Mount Laurel II thus defines the constitutional limitations on a municipality's power to regulate land. It also establishes a supporting corollary: …