Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

Re-Imagining Design For Affordable Housing In Mexico, Kenza Fernandez Dominguez

Scripps Senior Theses

Since the presidency of Enrique Peña Nieto, affordable housing developments in Mexico have been produced in a massive, unsustainable scale. The speed at which these developments are produced equates to the carelessness that goes into their planning. At large, the developments’ monotonous design is aesthetically dehumanizing and fails to promote a sense of community. These developments lack basic infrastructure, and their residents have abandoned them, which has incentivized increased criminal activity.

In this paper, I will be looking at successful models of affordable housing globally, exploring the histories of communal living, and function of architectural collages. Based on my findings, …

Expanding Housing Typology, Increasing Affordability: A Flexible Density Program For The City Of San Luis Obispo, Graham J. Bultema

Master's Theses

The City of San Luis Obispo faces an ongoing housing production shortage and housing affordability crisis that has been afflicting jurisdictions across State of California for a prolonged period of time. The City faces many of the same housing availability and affordability challenges as the rest of the State, but also has distinct characteristics that necessitate unique policies and strategies, such as the concurrent presence of both a large student and young professional population as well as a wealthy retirement community, which drastically drives up housing prices and demand.

The Flexible Density Program is proposed by the City of San …

Yimby And Covid-19, Michael Lewyn

Scholarly Works

Discusses whether the COVID-19 pandemic strengthens the case for the pro-housing YIMBY (Yes In My Back Yard) movement.

Micro-Housing In Seattle Update: Combating “Seattle-Ization”, Taylor Haines

Seattle University Law Review SUpra

No abstract provided.

Beyond The Market: A “Public-Commons-Partnership” For Housing, Arielle Lawson

Publications and Research

The commodification of housing has led to new levels of unaffordability for tenants all over the country. With skyrocketing rents and an explosion of homelessness, we are faced with the glaring failures of our capitalist housing system to meet people’s most basic human needs. Recognizing the inherent limitations of “affordable housing” within a profit-driven system, we need a paradigm shift around housing that can change the terms of the debate, and advance a real alternative to the speculative market. A growing housing justice movement — combined with a renewed politicization of tenants — is leading the way. From new rent …

Screened Out Of Housing: The Impact Of Misleading Tenant Screening Reports And The Potential For Criminal Expungement As A Model For Effectively Sealing Evictions, Katelyn Polk

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

Having an eviction record “blacklists” tenants from finding future housing. Even renters with mere eviction filings—not eviction orders—on their records face the harsh collateral consequences of eviction. This Note argues that eviction records should be sealed at filing and only released into the public record if a landlord prevails in court. Juvenile record expungement mechanisms in Illinois serve as a model for one way to protect people with eviction records. Recent updates to the Illinois juvenile expungement process provided for the automatic expungement of certain records and strengthened the confidentiality protections of juvenile records. Illinois protects juvenile records because it …

Comparative Study: Reducing Cost To Manage Accessibility With Existing Data, Claire Chu, Bill Kerneckel, Eric C. Larson, Nathan Mowat, Christopher Woodard

SMU Data Science Review

“Project Sidewalk” is an existing research effort that focuses on mapping accessibility issues for handicapped persons to efficiently plan wheelchair and mobile scooter friendly routes around Washington D.C. As supporters of this project, we utilized the data “Project Sidewalk” collected and used it to confirm predictions about where problem sidewalks exist based on real estate and crime data. We present a study that identifies correlations found between accessibility data and crime and housing statistics in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area. We identify the key reasons for increased accessibility and the issues with the current infrastructure management system. After a thorough …

Squatters, Shanties, And Technocratic Professionals: Urban Migration And Housing Shortages In Twentieth-Century Chile, Nathan C. Norris

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the struggles of squatters and slum dwellers for housing prior to the 1973 coup in Santiago de Chile, Valparaíso, and surrounding areas, with a focus on the Frei era of the late 1960s. The work argues that severe urban overcrowding generated advocacy for housing during the rise of progressive and leftist politics in Chile. It also explores the dynamics of efforts to promote housing through the lens of the work of professionals in the fields of architecture and urban planning. It argues that Chilean professionals adopted modernist principals in the fields of architecture and planning when promoting …

New Beginnings Homeless Transition Village, Community Design Center

Project Reports

More than three million Americans experience homelessness annually. Emergency shelter capacity is limited while local governments are unable to provide even temporary housing. Informal housing involving interim self-help solutions are now popular adaptive actions for obtaining shelter despite nonconformance with city codes. Unfortunately, most informal solutions have resulted in objectionable tent cities and squatter campgrounds where the local response has simply been to move the problem around. Our homeless transition village plan prototypes a shelter-first solution using a kit-of-parts that can be replicated in other communities. Village design reconciles key gaps between informal building practices and formal sector regulations, creating …

2018 July-December Market Urbanism Blog Posts, Michael Lewyn

Michael E Lewyn

Voices Of Cully: A Case Study Of The Living Cully Weatherization And Home Repair Project 2.0, Lucy J.T. Cultrera

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

The Cully neighborhood is situated in the Northeast quadrant of Portland, Oregon. It is 2.75 square mile plot of land and home to roughly 13,000 people. In addition to being one of the most diverse neighborhoods in Portland, it is the most densely populated, with the smallest amount of parkland per capita. Over the last two decades, home value has increased 203% in Cully, compared to a 90% citywide increase. Amidst these development trends are stories of incredible resilience, resistance and activism from the affected community. My project is a case study of one anti-displacement initiative, which was developed and …

The Crisis In Housing Has Deep Roots And Supply Alone Will Not Resolve It., Tom Dunne

Conference papers

Ireland is suffering a housing crisis which will not be easily solved. This is not the first generation to struggle with housing problems. A review of history shows that property markets have pronounced cycles and a continual struggle to provide affordable housing with much direct state provision and extensive subsidises for home ownership. Part of the current crisis results from the abandonment of direct provision of housing by the state but the gradual withdrawal subsidies for owner occupation, has also made a contribution to making home ownership less affordable for many.

A crucial part of dealing with the crisis is …

Renting Trouble: Current Government Policy Of Relying On The Private Rented Sector To Deliver Social Housing Is Unlikely To Succeed, Tom Dunne

Reports

A review of the history of housing in Ireland shows that owner occupancy and social housing were policy choices by successive governments. Owner occupancy was heavily supported through a system of grants and tax breaks and social housing was directly provided through local authorities at subsidised rents. In recent years policy has changed and tenure neutrality is now guiding the government’s attitude to housing. This is a significant change which has not been sufficiently discussed and has consequences which are not appreciated. Relying on the market to provide rental housing for people on low incomes and who may be in …

Calpoly Must To Do More To Put Brakes On Vehicle Traffic, William W. Riggs

William W. Riggs

There are countless examples of university communities in the United States and internationally that have implemented similar policies. While the city of San Luis Obispo is taking aggressive steps to move in that direction as a part of updates to the Land Use and Circulation Elements, these efforts are not being matched by the campus — and this is at a time where the increase in student population necessitates it.

Prelude To A Master Plan: Ware, Massachusetts, Belen Alfaro, Bruno Carneiro, Margaret Engesser, Kathryn E. Fox, Evadne R. Friedman, Timothy Inacio, Anita Lockesmith, Christina Mills, Stephanie Molden, Meagen Mulherin, Russell Pandres, Vinicius Pereira, Brian Reid, Pedro Soto, Jennifer Stromsten

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Studio and Student Research and Creative Activity

Prelude to a Master Plan offers ideas, recommendations, and a toolkit to help the town chart its own path towards that future. While the teams and individual students worked to ‘drill down’ into specific topic areas, the Studio defined three basic areas in order to think about how the various assets, challenges and ideas undermine or reinforce one another. The report is loosely organized in those terms: addressing the outlying rural areas and issues specific to these places, considering one of the key growth areas that has extended from town and the conflicts that arise from the many uses occurring …

Socio-Economic Effects Of Demolishing Squatter Settlements And Illegal Structures In Abuja Metropolis, Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria, Ishaku Iy Mallo Phd, Victor G. Obasanya

Confluence Journal Environmental Studies (CJES), Kogi State University, Nigeria

Abuja the Federal Capital Territory and study area is located between latitudes 8o25’ and 9o25’ North of the Equator and longitudes 6o45’ and 7o45’ East of the Greenwich Meridian. The study was carried out in Abuja Phase 1, and it is aimed at highlighting various socioeconomic effects of demolition of illegal structures and informal or squatter settlements on the people within the study area. Data was collected through reconnaissance survey, personal interviews with respondents, and a well laid out questionnaire. The results indicate that the demolition exercise embarked upon by the authorities in the Federal Capital Territory was a response …

Avoiding The Mistakes Of The Past, Tom Dunne

Articles

Tom Dunne explores the long term drivers of dysfunction in Ireland's housing markets and what a more sustainable housing system would look like.

Urban Form In Europe And America, Pietro S. Nivola

Brookings Scholar Lecture Series

Why do America's cities sprawl whereas European cities remain comparatively compact, and what difference do the patterns of urban development make? Pietro Nivola, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, addresses these questions. Nivola examines two kinds of determinants of urban form: (1) market forces, including those influenced by geography, demographics, and technological change, and (2) public policies shaping national transportation systems, tax policy, educational institutions, and more. He also discusses the implications of the different cityscapes for energy consumption.

Negotiating Housing Recovery In Post-Earthquake Urban Kutch, India, Anuradha Mukherji

Anuradha Mukherji

The 2001 Kutch earthquake, in Gujarat state in western India, destroyed 230,000 houses and damaged another 1 million. In Bhuj and Bachhau, urban centers close to the epicenter of the earthquake, single-family houses, squatter settlements, and high-rise apartments were destroyed, and public and private housing reconstruction programs were introduced to help communities rebuild their houses. However, five years after the disaster, in spite of interventions by local and global, public and private entities, many communities in both towns continued to struggle towards housing recovery. This dissertation examines why some communities were able to rebuild and improve their overall housing conditions …

All Party Oireachtas Committee On The Constitution Ninth Progress Report, Tom Dunne

Reports

Ireland, like many other countries with high rates of economic growth, is urbanising rapidly. There has been considerable emphasis on planning for this through the National Development Plan, the National Spatial Strategy, development guidelines and other measures. Through these the state intends that a proper planning process will lead growth rather than leaving it to market forces to drive development in what are regarded as undesirable directions. The latter it is feared will lead to unsuitable social, economic or physical outcomes. Unintended results have flowed from the implementation, or flawed implementation of many of these policies and have given rise …

Sprawl, Growth Boundaries And The Rehnquist Court , Michael E Lewyn

Michael E Lewyn

This article addresses the constitutionality and wisdom of Oregon's urban growth boundary (UGB) program. The article concludes that the program is constitutional under current precedent, and that (contrary to claims made by UGB critics) there is little evidence that the UGB has caused Oregon's runup in housing prices. On the other hand, UGB supporters may have exaggerated the UGB's positive environmental results.

Town Of Billerica, Massachusetts Master Plan Appendix B Community Charrette Results, Center For Economic Development

Center for Economic Development Technical Reports

This is Appendix B of the Town of Billerica, Massachusetts Master Plan. This Appendix contains the results of a Community Charrette in Billerica, Massachusetts that helped identify the desires of residents in the community.

Town Of Billerica, Massachusetts Master Plan Appendix A Community Socio-Economic Profile, Center For Economic Development

Center for Economic Development Technical Reports

This is Appendix A of the Town of Billerica, Massachusetts Master Plan. This Appendix contains a Community Socio-Economic Profile.

Town Of Billerica, Massachusetts Master Plan Appendix C Community Survey Results, Center For Economic Development

Center for Economic Development Technical Reports

This is Appendix C of the Town of Billerica, Massachusetts Master Plan. This Appendix contains a summarized report of the results of a community survey.

Town Of Billerica, Massachusetts Master Plan, Center For Economic Development

Center for Economic Development Technical Reports

Billerica is a community rich in history and burgeoning with change. We come from colonial, agrarian roots, participated in the industrial revolution and enjoyed our day as a vacation destination. Billerica changed as the post war economy changed and became a haven for those, many from the city, seeking a close-knit community to raise families. We are now at the forefront of a high technology economy that has brought with it jobs, hotels and more change. As a community we struggle with our desire to preserve our historical character as a rural community and our realization that economic development is …

Town Of Billerica, Massachusetts Master Plan Appendix D, Center For Economic Development

Center for Economic Development Technical Reports

This is an appendix for the Town of Billerica, Massachusetts Master Plan. This Appendix contains a community buildout analysis for Billerica.

Town Of Billerica, Massachusetts Master Plan Appendix E, Center For Economic Development

Center for Economic Development Technical Reports

This is an Appendix for the Town of Billerica, Massachusetts Master Plan. This Appendix contains an open space and recreation plan for the Town of Billerica.

Town Of Amesbury, Umass Amherst Center Economic Development

Center for Economic Development Technical Reports

This report explored the town of Amesbury, Massachusetts. Amesbury’s municipal government was supported by diverse citizen groups and business organizations. The town was a suburban community with abundant natural resources and a delightful village core.

Town Of Boxford, Umass Amherst Center Economic Development

Center for Economic Development Technical Reports

This report explores the town of Boxford, Massachusetts. Boxford is a unique rural community in the Merrimack Valley and the Boston metropolitan area. It has no traffic lights, sidewalks or signs, and very few streetlights, or commercial or industrial activity. Because of its 50-year old 2-acre zoning and close proximity to Boston, which contribute to its high housing costs, this community is out of reach for most Massachusetts residents.

Town Of Haverhill, Umass Amherst Center Economic Development

Center for Economic Development Technical Reports

This report focuses on the town of Haverhill, Massachusetts. The town was settled in 1650, with a population of 52,000. Haverhill has maintained the characteristics of hometowns found throughout New England. The town has an established restaurant district and a proliferation of specialty shops that are all within walking distance of each other, while surrounding neighborhoods reflect interesting architectural diversity.