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| HOPE III housing in Sandtown: Mayor Schmoke in 1993 (Photo Philipsen) |
Even people who see government as something positive get drawn into the vortex of examples of well intended public aid going terribly awry. Examples galore, internationally (pigs for Haiti), nationally (farm-aid for using corn for ethanol), or in affordable housing or homelessness policies both on the national, state and local level. Slum and blight removal have been the aim of failed urban renewal (the Baltimore Highway to Nowhere), the aim of large scale rehabilitation for first time home-buyers such as Hope III in Sandtown, and even in seemingly convincing strategies such as building from strength as used at Hopkins and EBDI. Almost anything that has been tried had unintended consequences which often outweighed the benefits.
Not that there hasn't been a learning curve. Baltimore's latest HOPE VI redevelopment (Albemarle Square) was definitely better than its first (the conversion of Lafayette Courts into Pleasant View Gardens); the latest federal grant program of Opportunity Zones is probably substantially improved over the Empowerment Zones of the 1990s which left the neighborhoods pretty much unchanged.
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| Trust lost: The "highway to nowhere" and its destruction of viable communities (Photo: Philipsen) |
All told, industrial legacy cities, such as Baltimore, are still grappling with the same issues they have faced ever since manufacturing and industrial production began to decline and sometimes before. Policies to deal with the aftermath meandered form local policies serving those with the highest needs first (Mayor Kurt Schmoke, Sandtown) to policies which advocate building from strength (Mayor O'Malley, EBDI). The fiscal argument that triage and smaller interventions is a much more resource protective strategy than trying to help the most needy is as convincing as the equally fiscal reasoning that ignored areas of high needs breed crime and dysfunction, costing a city much of its competitive attractiveness. The matter gets even more complicated if one considers not only economic aspects (how can each dollar have the greatest impact?) but also social impacts (how can the most people live in decency?).
A long history of research has shown that people who live in disadvantaged neighborhoods fare poorly on important life outcomes, such as income, education, health, and criminal involvement. (Evaluating the Impact of Moving to Opportunity in the United States)The debate how to best administer government programs occurs in almost any field: Education, health, and transportation to name just a few. Housing is just the most prominent aspect. This was correctly recognized as early as 1941, when the Citizens Planning and Housing Association (CPHA) was formed in Baltimore. 77 years later questions abound about what is happening in Baltimore's housing scene. Here a small sampling:
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| HUD Brochure 2017 |
- How can a city such as Baltimore have so many vacant and abandoned homes with hardly any assessed tax value and still have tens of thousands of people on a housing waiting list?
- Is map of Market Typology which Baltimore's Department of Planning is using just another version of the infamous redlining maps?
- Should poor people be relocated to opportunity areas (Moving to Opportunity is a federal policy) as is intended by the suit filed by the ACLU against Baltimore Housing against high concentrations of poverty
- Should investment occur in the highly dis-invested areas to make life there better (the impetus of the recent Opportunity Zone tax credits)
- should urban renewal be driven by market forces or should it be fueled by funds collected outside the market place (such as the new Baltimore affordable housing trust fund).
- Are vouchers artificially making housing more expensive?
- Is the conversion of public housing into mixed use communities one reason for the affordable housing crisis?
- Does the Rental Assistance Demonstration program (RAD) unlock private capital to solve the housing crisis or further diminish actual public assistance for low income residents?
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| Perkins Homes: Public Housing, more quantity than community |
In spite of all cynicism and questionable outcomes, pragmatists will continue to search action to reduce homelessness and poverty and bring relief from high rent burdens and poor housing conditions. Housing is the gateway to a slew of bad outcomes, including social isolation, poor access to services and, most importantly, poor community health. The 20 year life discrepancy between the richest and the poorest neighborhoods in Baltimore leads to the untenable realization that your zip code matters more than your gene code when it comes to life expectancy. The fact that in some Baltimore's neighborhoods it hovers around that of North Korea or Rwanda is a scandal and doesn't help Baltimore's standing among the cities struggling to find a decent space in the post industrial world.
The State of Maryland jumped into the fray with its much touted Project Core which funds some rehabilitation but predominantly demolition of vacant houses. The emphasis on demolition is unfortunate but aided by communities which are generally in favor of getting rid of vacant houses for the rodents, drug stashes and criminal activities associated with them. The homeless may accidentally set an abandoned structure on fire when they try to warm themselves in winter. It is easy to forget the bigger question: Will vacant lots be an improvement or an even larger obstacle on the path to recovery? As we will see in a moment, the biggest question is, what does vacancy do social cohesion?
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| Lillian Jones affordable housing in Greenmount West (Photo: Philipsen) |
To address the housing and homeless crisis the City is serving a smorgasbord of "all of the above" initiatives. Affordable housing complexes are built by non-profits and for-profits in poor neighborhoods, some poor residents are relocated to the suburbs continuous, (even though most suburban jurisdictions try to prevent it) and additional public housing complexes are slated for demolition in favor of mixed use communities (Perkins and Douglass Homes), vacants to value tries to recycle old rowhouses. The City designated a record of 42 Opportunity Zones. Mayor Pugh trying to live up to the City's promise of ending homelessness seems as elusive as bringing the number of vacant houses down.
“If we are going to get serious about public safety, we’re going to get serious about educating our kids. Then we have to get serious about stable, affordable, safe housing in Baltimore.” (Zeke Cohen, Housing Round-table Nov 8, 2017)
In the confusing array of approaches, contradictions and unintended consequences a few truths and principles are emerging:
- Income and ethnic diversity are better for any community than homogeneity
- Moving very low income households in an attempt of dispersing poverty opens up opportunities for children but does not economically advance adults
- social trust, cohesion, equity and community are important but severely disturbed by a number of the housing strategies. (Social Trust: Fairness Matters More than Social Homogeneity)
Trust is a fundamental element of social capital – a key contributor to sustaining well-being outcomes, including economic development. (Ortis-Ospina, Rosen, 2018).
"Virtually every commercial transaction has within itself an element of trust, certainly any transaction conducted over a period of time." (Arrow, Gifts and Exchanges, 1972)
Interpersonal trust in the US: Falling since 1985
The issue of social trust and social capital could be a potentially excellent screening tool for the many seemingly conflicting housing strategies. Trust and social capital are important metrics in a time when trust is on a historic low in the US, regardless whether measured as interpersonal trust or trust in institutions or government. Concurrent with increasing isolation of ethnic groups in the famous "echo chambers" which are said to be further stratified by social media we see hostility increase. Lack of trust is now seen as an impediment in many fields, including economic development, mental and physical health. The federal agency of Housing and Urban Development is on the Community First movement and has even developed its own paper on the topic.
Some may see that lack of trust and societal fragmentation as an inevitable result of modern life and therefore assume it would occur worldwide. Yet in the paper about Social Trust in Data, various graphs show other countries, such as Sweden, maintaining a high level of trust in spite of an increasingly diverse population.
The goal of building or maintaining community would be even more important for the most vulnerable, the homeless. But there a concept such as replacing transporting homeless by vans and buses to central shelters by bringing bring food and blankets to people where they are would be even more controversial than placing affordable housing. Possibly it would mean allowing transitional homeless camps since sometimes they provide a sense of community. Providing services would reduce some of the associated risks. A previous article on this blog discussed experiments in other cities here in which the housing first policy is adjusted towards no traditional forms of informal housing. A recent experiment in Austin is even called Community First!
It should be self evident that building community would be the most noble goal of urbanism and should have been it all along. But the fear of the other, fear of change and pure racism have gotten in the way, time and again. Plus, dealing with people is just a lot more complicated than building buildings.
Klaus Philipsen, FAIA
Some may see that lack of trust and societal fragmentation as an inevitable result of modern life and therefore assume it would occur worldwide. Yet in the paper about Social Trust in Data, various graphs show other countries, such as Sweden, maintaining a high level of trust in spite of an increasingly diverse population.
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| Trust in Government: Low in the US and France |
According to the latest edition of the Edelman Trust Barometer, the United States has experienced a significant 37 percentage point drop in trust across its institutions while at the opposite end of the scale, China experienced a 27-point gain. When it comes to government, one of the most important trust indicators, China leads the way. Edelman found that 84 percent of people in China trust their government, the highest level worldwide and an eight percentage point increase on 2017. (Forbes)For Baltimore, a focus on equity and social capital would require a significant retooling of policies especially for the disinvested communities with high needs which continue to languish. A new emphasis on building social capital and networks of social cohesion would have many implications. As the basis of new it would mean housing policies, keeping people in place would be emphasized over moving people around. Bringing services to people would be prioritized over bringing people to services. Ultimately, it wouldn't be the goal to reduce a two hour commute from a disinvested community to a low paying job by half an hour. Instead the goal would be to create a job in the community and make the commute as short as 5 to 10 minutes, possibly without the need to use transit at all. The reconstruction plans for Perkins Homes are on the right track with the goal of maintaining the number of affordable units as is and adding market rate units through increased density, but a cohesive strategy of integrating places of employment into communities is absent.
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| Community First: A village for the homeless |
The goal of building or maintaining community would be even more important for the most vulnerable, the homeless. But there a concept such as replacing transporting homeless by vans and buses to central shelters by bringing bring food and blankets to people where they are would be even more controversial than placing affordable housing. Possibly it would mean allowing transitional homeless camps since sometimes they provide a sense of community. Providing services would reduce some of the associated risks. A previous article on this blog discussed experiments in other cities here in which the housing first policy is adjusted towards no traditional forms of informal housing. A recent experiment in Austin is even called Community First!
It should be self evident that building community would be the most noble goal of urbanism and should have been it all along. But the fear of the other, fear of change and pure racism have gotten in the way, time and again. Plus, dealing with people is just a lot more complicated than building buildings.
Klaus Philipsen, FAIA
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