PD&R Edge, an online magazine, gives you an instant view of our newly released research, periodicals, publications, news and commentary on housing and urban development issues. Stay informed on current topics and check back often, as our content is regularly updated.
Featured: Housing affordability challenges of high interest rates
At the National Housing Conference’s Solutions for Affordable Housing conference, a panel discussion examined the role high interest rates play in shaping the US housing market and the consequences this has on housing affordability and on government budgets and services. Speakers discussed the vicious cycle of inflationary housing costs, high interest rates in response, and the resulting decline in construction activity that perpetuates the high cost of housing. Rapid changes in recent years in working patterns, living preferences and interest rates have shaken housing markets in the United States, underscoring the need for broad and responsive policy solutions to prevent the calcification of widespread housing affordability and the continued housing inequality.
PD&R leadership: Reflecting on Cityscape’s most cited articles
In the Leadership Message, Mark Shroder, Deputy Assistant Associate Secretary for Research, Evaluation and Monitoring, discusses some of the most impactful articles published in Cityscape, an academic journal published by PD&R since 1994. Among the topics covered by the most cited articles in the magazine’s story covered the cost of land use regulations, the role of cities in adapting to and taking advantage of technological change, and the effects of neighborhood change on low-income households.
PD&R at 50: Tenant-based rental assistance
Tenant-based rental assistance provides a housing subsidy directly to tenants rather than tying subsidies to individual units as traditional public housing does. With funding from the Model Cities program, HUD tested the tenant-based model in Kansas City, Missouri, before a more widespread effort, the Experimental Housing Allowance Program, which ran from 1970 to 1981. Since then, HUD has tested several innovations for rent assistance tenants to ensure that families supported by HUD can access safe and stable housing in areas rich in opportunity.
Practically: The affordable housing development becomes the first project to use funding from a dedicated municipal bond in Charleston
Bulls Creek Apartments, in Charleston, South Carolina’s West Ashley neighborhood, is a family-oriented, 57-unit affordable residential complex. Opening in August 2022, Bulls Creek was the city’s first project completed using proceeds from its $20 million affordable housing bond, which voters overwhelmingly approved in 2017. Bulls Creek Apartments represents a step promising toward solving Charleston’s affordable housing shortage, with officials estimating the city needs to add more than 16,000 new housing units.
Trendy: Self-reported long-term COVID-19 among adults assisted by HUD: Preliminary Home Pulse Survey (HPS) results linked to HUD administrative data
Emerging evidence shows that some people may experience long-term adverse health effects after being infected with COVID-19. This condition, commonly referred to as long-term COVID, includes an ongoing set of symptoms that can last for weeks, months, or longer. Using data from the US Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey, preliminary findings from PD&R analysts suggest that relatively high rates of adults assisted by HUD report experiencing long-term COVID symptoms. Specifically, among adults assisted by HUD, those aged 18 to 40 and those living in households with children reported the highest rates of long-term COVID. The research presented represents the beginning of an ongoing effort to track and understand symptoms of long-term COVID among HUD-assisted families.
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