In Los Angeles County, unhoused people living in cars, trucks, and RVs outnumber those in tents and makeshift shelters by 50%, yet vehicular homelessness receives relatively little attention. Many cities don’t even measure or report on it — at least not yet. The Lewis Center’s Madeline Brozen joins to discuss her research on the distinct demographics and experiences of unhoused people living out of their vehicles, and the promise of safe parking programs to support the transition back into stable housing.

Show notes:

• Giamarino, C., Brozen, M., & Blumenberg, E. (2023). Planning for and against vehicular homelessness: Spatial trends and determinants of vehicular dwelling in Los Angeles. Journal of the American Planning Association, 89(1), 80-92.
• Giamarino, C., Blumenberg, E., & Brozen, M. (2022). Who Lives in Vehicles and Why? Understanding Vehicular Homelessness in Los Angeles. Housing Policy Debate, 1-14.
• Episode 53 of UCLA Housing Voice, with Vinit Mukhija on informal housing.
• Read more about the 2023 National Point-In-Time Homeless Count, which showed a 12% increase from the previous year, to 653,000 people.
• Wakin, M. (2013). Otherwise Homeless: Vehicle living and the culture of homelessness. Lynne Rienner Publishers.
• Visit TheyCountWillYou.org to volunteer for the annual Point-In-Time Homeless Count in Los Angeles County on January 24-26, 2024. If you live in another part of the U.S., search online for a homeless count happening near you.
• Click here to learn more about the New Beginnings safe parking program in Santa Barbara.

Many people think they know about the lives of people experiencing homelessness, but those perceptions are often based on anecdote. Margot Kushel, MD joins us to talk about her work on the largest representative study of homelessness since the 1990s, and what it says about who experiences homelessness, why they become homeless, their experiences while living without housing, and barriers to re-entering stable housing.

Show notes:

• Kushel, M., & Moore, T. (2023). Towards a New Understanding: The California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness. University of California, San Francisco Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative.
• Colburn, G. (2023). Episode 61: Homelessness is a Housing Problem with Gregg Colburn (Pathways Home pt. 1), Housing Voice Podcast, UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies.
• Khadduri, J. & Shinn, M. (2020). In the Midst of Plenty: Homelessness and What to Do About It. Wiley-Blackwell.
• Hahn, J. A., Kushel, M. B., Bangsberg, D. R., Riley, E., & Moss, A. R. (2006). Brief report: The aging of the homeless population: Fourteen-year trends in San Francisco. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 21(7), 775–778. 
• Schaeffer, K. (2022, March 23). Key facts about housing affordability in the U.S. Pew Research Center. 
• Executive summary of the Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness.
• More reading about Los Angeles’s efforts to accelerate housing placements for people experiencing homelessness.

Part one of Pathways Home, a six-part series on homelessness. Gregg Colburn, author of Homelessness is a Housing Problem, dispels myths about the causes of homelessness and identifies two key risk factors that explain why rates vary so much between cities: high rents and low vacancies.

Show notes:

• Colburn, G., & Aldern, C. P. (2022). Homelessness is a Housing Problem: How structural factors explain US patterns. University of California Press.
• O’Flaherty, B. (2004). Wrong person and wrong place: For homelessness, the conjunction is what matters. Journal of Housing Economics, 13(1), 1-15.
• Glaeser, E. L., & Gyourko, J. (2005). Urban decline and durable housing. Journal of political economy, 113(2), 345-375.
• Kushel, M., & Moore, T. (2023). Towards a New Understanding: The California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness. University of California, San Francisco Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative.
• George, H. (1879). Progress and Poverty. Published for the Henry George Foundation of Great Britain by the Hogarth Press. 
• Shinn, M., & Khadduri, J. (2020). In the midst of plenty: Homelessness and what to do about it. Wiley Blackwell. 
• UCLA Housing Voice Episode 21: What to Do About Homelessness with Beth Shinn.

The federal government passed the Fair Housing Act more than 50 years ago. In that time considerable progress has been made at reducing discrimination in the housing market, but the law’s mandate to “affirmatively further fair housing” and reverse patterns of segregation has been only lightly enforced. Katherine O’Regan of NYU, and formerly of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, joins Mike and Shane to talk about the legacy of the Fair Housing Act, the changing nature of neighborhood segregation and opportunity in America, and recent efforts to proactively foster inclusive communities using fair housing laws.

Show notes:

• O’Regan, K. (2018). The Fair Housing Act Today: Current Context and Challenges at 50. Housing Policy Debate.
• O’Regan, K., & Zimmerman, K. (2019). The Potential of the Fair Housing Act's Affirmative Mandate and HUD's AFFH Rule. Cityscape, 21(1), 87-98.
• Kerner Commission Report, including a summary by UC Berkeley's Othering and Belonging Institute.

Housing scarcity is linked to higher rents and house prices, but it’s rarely connected to the cost and reach of safety net programs — and it should be. Kevin Corinth joins to share his research on how increasing housing production in supply-constrained cities can help the government serve many more households with rent assistance.

Show notes:

• Corinth, K., & Irvine, A. (2023). JUE Insight: The Effect of Relaxing Local Housing Market Regulations on Federal Rental Assistance Programs. Journal of Urban Economics, 103572.
• Molloy, R., Nathanson, C. G., & Paciorek, A. (2022). Housing supply and affordability: Evidence from rents, housing consumption and household location. Journal of Urban Economics, 129, 103427.
• Glaeser, E., & Gyourko, J. (2018). The economic implications of housing supply. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 32(1), 3-30.
• Episode 16 of UCLA Housing Voice, on Japanese housing policy with Jiro Yoshida.
• Episode 17 of UCLA Housing Voice, on housing vouchers with Rob Collinson. 
• Eriksen, M. D., & Rosenthal, S. S. (2010). Crowd out effects of place-based subsidized rental housing: New evidence from the LIHTC program. Journal of Public Economics, 94(11-12), 953-966.
• Episode 45 of UCLA Housing Voice, on the impact of Auckland’s upzoning with Ryan Greenaway-McGrevy.

Does discretion delay development, or do deliberate decisions divert disaster? Paavo and Mike M. share new Lewis Center research comparing approval timelines for discretionary and by-right projects, and they discuss the consequences of slow and uncertain approval processes for housing production, affordability, and public trust.

Show notes:

• Manville, M., Monkkonen, P., Gray, N., & Phillips, S. (2023). Does Discretion Delay Development? The Impact of Approval Pathways on Multifamily Housing’s Time to Permit. Journal of the American Planning Association, 89(3), 336-347.
• Episode 27 of UCLA Housing Voice with Nolan Gray.
• Kim, M. (2020). Negotiation or schedule-based? Examining the strengths and weaknesses of the public benefit exaction strategies of Boston and Seattle. Journal of the American Planning Association, 86(2), 208-221.
• Episode 8 of UCLA Housing Voice with Minjee Kim.
• Manville, M., & Osman, T. (2017). Motivations for growth revolts: Discretion and pretext as sources of development conflict. City & Community, 16(1), 66-85.
• On parcel-level planning: Manville, M., & Monkkonen, P. (2021). Unwanted housing: Localism and politics of housing development. Journal of Planning Education and Research.

How does the neighborhood you live in affect your health? Craig Pollack, MD, joins to discuss the relationship between neighborhood poverty and asthma symptoms, the medical establishment’s growing role in the housing sector, and how better housing policy can lead to improved public health.

Show notes:

• Pollack, C. E., Roberts, L. C., Peng, R. D., Cimbolic, P., Judy, D., Balcer-Whaley, S., ... & Matsui, E. C. (2023). Association of a Housing Mobility Program With Childhood Asthma Symptoms and Exacerbations. JAMA, 329(19), 1671-1681.
• Sanbonmatsu, L., J. Ludwig, L. F. Katz, L. A. Gennetian, G. J. Duncan, R. C. Kessler, E. Adam, T. McDade, and S. T. Lindau (2011). Moving to Opportunity for Fair Housing Demonstration Program: Final Impacts Evaluation. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Policy Development and Research.
• Episode 17 of UCLA Housing Voice: Housing Vouchers with Rob Collinson.
• Bergman, P., Chetty, R., DeLuca, S., Hendren, N., Katz, L. F., & Palmer, C. (2019). Creating moves to opportunity: Experimental evidence on barriers to neighborhood choice (No. w26164). National Bureau of Economic Research.
• Chetty, R., Hendren, N., & Katz, L. F. (2016). The effects of exposure to better neighborhoods on children: New evidence from the moving to opportunity experiment. American Economic Review, 106(4), 855-902.
• Pollack, C. E., Bozzi, D. G., Blackford, A. L., DeLuca, S., Thornton, R. L., & Herring, B. (2023). Using the Moving to Opportunity experiment to investigate the long-term impact of neighborhoods on healthcare use by specific clinical conditions and type of service. Housing Policy Debate, 33(1), 269-289.
• Program information on the Housing For Health program in Los Angeles County.
• More background on Housing For Health and its impact from the Rand Corporation blog.

The modern mortgage: fixed-rate, low interest, 30-year term, 80% loan-to-value, amortizing. It wouldn’t exist without the backing of the federal government, but how and why was it created? And what were the consequences for the housing market and broader economy? Judge Glock joins us to share the surprising history of the modern home mortgage, the strange bedfellows who fought for its creation, and its relationship to a century of bank bailouts.

Show notes:

• Glock, J. E. (2021). The Dead Pledge: The Origins of the Mortgage Market and Federal Bailouts, 1913–1939. Columbia University Press.
• Gillman, H. (1993). The Constitution Besieged: The rise and demise of Lochner era police powers jurisprudence. Duke University Press.
• Seligman, L. G., & Cornwell, E. E. (1965). New Deal Mosaic: Roosevelt Confers with His National Emergency Council, 1933-1936.

Studies in Latin America show that “secure tenure” —- protections against displacement by the government — can encourage resident-led development and economic growth in slum areas, as well as improve public health. Is the same true in the African context? And what happens if the government also provides quality, affordable housing along with secure tenure? Singumbe Muyeba joins us to share the results of his research on a slum upgrading program in Nairobi, Kenya.

Show notes:

• Muyeba, S. (2023). Property rights and health for the urban housing poor in Nairobi: Evidence from a phased-in natural experiment. Journal of Urban Affairs, 45(3), 590-615.
• Bah, E. H. M., Faye, I., Geh, Z. F., Bah, E. H. M., Faye, I., & Geh, Z. F. (2018). The housing sector in Africa: Setting the scene. Housing Market Dynamics in Africa, 1-21.
• Vogl, T. S. (2007). Urban land rights and child nutritional status in Peru, 2004. Economics & Human Biology, 5(2), 302-321.
• Galiani, S., & Schargrodsky, E. (2004). Effects of land titling on child health. Economics & Human Biology, 2(3), 353-372.
• Galiani, S., & Schargrodsky, E. (2010). Property rights for the poor: Effects of land titling. Journal of Public Economics, 94(9-10), 700-729.
• Monkkonen, P. (2012). The demand for land regularisation: Theory and evidence from Tijuana, Mexico. Urban Studies, 49(2), 271-288.
• Monkkonen, P. (2016). Where do property rights matter more? Explaining the variation in demand for property titles across cities in Mexico. World development, 88, 67-78.
• Episode 32 of UCLA Housing Voice with Diego Gil on Chile’s “Enabling Markets” policy, which the World Bank and others advocated for other developing countries.

Condos don’t cause gentrification; gentrification causes condos. That’s the verdict of Leah Boustan and Robert Margo, who come on the show to discuss their research on condominium conversion restrictions in US cities. In addition to their research results, we talk about the (surprisingly short) history of condo ownership, the unintended consequences of condo restrictions, and the way other policies like HOA governance and rent control influence the popularity of owner-occupied multifamily housing.

Show notes:

• Boustan, L., Margo, R. A., Miller, M. M., Reeves, J., & Steil, J. (2023). JUE Insight: Condominium development does not lead to gentrification. Journal of Urban Economics, 133, 103524.
• Diamond, R., McQuade, T., & Qian, F. (2019). The effects of rent control expansion on tenants, landlords, and inequality: Evidence from San Francisco. American Economic Review, 109(9), 3365-3394.
• Fetter, D. K. (2016). The Home Front: The Home Front: Rent Control and the Rapid Wartime Increase in Home Ownership. The Journal of Economic History, 76(4), 1001-1043.