Residential Mobility In New Communities

In this dissertation, I analyze the mobility patterns of renters living in project-based assisted housing. Most research suggests that renters living in assisted housing are stuck in disadvantageous contexts and are unable to access homes in more affluent communities, where resources and opportunities tend to be concentrated. However, our paradigms of residential mobility are inadequate for explaining the mobility patterns of assisted renters for at least three reasons. First, they assume that residents choose places to live primarily by selecting among a set of neighborhoods rather than a set of housing options. Second, they assume that all time spent living in a high poverty context is detrimental, and equally detrimental, to one's wellbeing and life chances. Third, they consider assisted housing to be a uniformly disadvantageous context where resources and opportunities are scarce. I explain when and why these assumptions are inaccurate and argue that assisted housing can increase residential stability by providing renters with housing that is affordable, safe, and accommodating of their needs. I further argue that residential stability is a resource renters use to improve their wellbeing and increase their access to opportunities. I show how residents living in assisted housing are able to access resources and opportunities from their neighbors and from an organizational resource broker that owns and manages assisted housing. To make my case, I draw on data from the American Housing Survey, the New York City Housing and Vacancy Survey, and the San Diego Assisted Housing Survey. In contrast with prevailing theories of residential mobility and neighborhood attainment, I find that residents may remain in assisted housing over long periods of time because doing so can improve their life chances to a greater extent than moving to a new home or neighborhood.

Seventeen papers by academics, evaluation researchers, and policy-makers deal with the importance of mobility research -- the study of ways in which neighbourhoods change -- for policy implementation, formulation, and research. Empirical mobility research, models for policy evaluation derived from it, the kinds of research needed to help local government keep abreast of changes in the areas they administer are some of the major topics discussed. '...this is a useful collection of essays which is well drawn together by the editors. The book should be essential reading for all academics interested in mobility research.' -- Progress in Human Geography, September 1984

From St. Louis to New Orleans, from Baltimore to Oklahoma City, there are poor and minority neighborhoods so beset by pollution that just living in them can be hazardous to your health. Due to entrenched segregation, zoning ordinances that privilege wealthier communities, or because businesses have found the OCypaths of least resistance, OCO there are many hazardous waste and toxic facilities in these communities, leading residents to experience health and wellness problems on top of the race and class discrimination most already experience. Taking stock of the recent environmental justice scholarship, a Toxic Communities aexamines the connections among residential segregation, zoning, and exposure to environmental hazards. Renowned environmental sociologist Dorceta Taylor focuses on the locations of hazardous facilities in low-income and minority communities and shows how they have been dumped on, contaminated and exposed. Drawing on an array of historical and contemporary case studies from across the country, Taylor explores controversies over racially-motivated decisions in zoning laws, eminent domain, government regulation (or lack thereof), and urban renewal. She provides a comprehensive overview of the debate over whether or not there is a link between environmental transgressions and discrimination, drawing a clear picture of the state of the environmental justice field today and where it is going. In doing so, she introduces new concepts and theories for understanding environmental racism that will be essential for environmental justice scholars. A fascinating landmark study, a Toxic Communities agreatly contributes to the study of race, the environment, and space in the contemporary United States."

Over 700,000 people moved for health reasons in the last year, and many more moved for reasons in which health was implicated, such as to escape climate hazards. Changes in the extent to which a residence promotes health should change housing prices--an important health and social exposure in its own right, as well as a mechanism through which numerous other features of a place are reshaped--yet the relationships between residential mobility, health, and housing markets remain poorly understood. This dissertation comprises three papers on the association of residential mobility with health and housing. In the first paper, I evaluate the effect of a localized change in healthcare access--the 2006 Massachusetts Healthcare Reform--on housing prices and interstate migration along the state border. I find an increase in the prices of affordable housing that is offset by a commensurate decrease in the price of luxury housing; I also observe a small increase in migration into Massachusetts versus into neighboring states. My second paper seeks to better understand the effects of climate migration on housing markets. Examining the impacts of displacement due to Hurricane Katrina, I show that housing prices decreased in destination neighborhoods that received the largest numbers of movers, relative to neighborhoods that did not receive large inflows. Effects are larger in predominantly Black destination neighborhoods than in predominantly White destination neighborhoods. I also find larger effects in places that received more economically disadvantaged movers relative to similar neighborhoods that received more advantaged movers. My third paper describes a collaboration with the Healthy Neighborhoods Study Consortium, for whom I constructed a data set of estimated moving flows between Massachusetts neighborhoods. I then created a web-based app to make the resulting estimates accessible to planners, community organizations, and residents. An overarching theme of this work is the recognition that communities share housing and health challenges with the places to which former residents move and the places from which new residents arrive.