URBS/PLSI 580 "Housing & Community Development Policy"
Fall, l998 Richard LeGates
Office HSS 137Office Hrs. TTH 1:30 - 2:00 & appt
Phone 338-2391 E-mail dlegates@sfsu.eduProject # 2
The second project for this course consists of a choice between either:
A book report on a current housing book;
A report on a Bay Area housing organization;
A housing policy report
A housing plan report
An eight page double spaced, typed paper is due in class on December 8.
Students should be prepared to give a 10-minute talk on their project on the 8th. Plan To Finish your paper early and proofread and revise it. Late papers will be marked down. Students who do not turn in a paper by the final will be marked down one full letter grade for the course.
Following are suggested books, Bay Area housing organizations, and housing plans and policies, which would be appropriate for project # 2, reports. You should select one of these books, organizations, plans or policies and let me know which one you are doing. I will try to minimize overlap and put people interested in the same issue in touch with each other. If you have ideas about other housing and community development related books, organizations, or issues please discuss them with me.
I. Bay Area Housing Organization Report
Following are some Bay Area housing and community development organizations, which are appropriate for reports. (If you want to do a different organization please check with me first). Before visiting the organization you should do some background reading in books and professional journals that will help place the organization in context. You should visit the organization on site, arrange to interview a knowledgeable staff member, and review any annual report or written documents describing what the organization is and what it does. Your written report should assume no knowledge on the part of the reader. Identify the name and location of the organization. Describe what exactly the organization does: what is its niche in the larger housing picture? What are indicators of its recent performance? Describe the historical background (origins) of the organization. Describe its size and staffing. Who works there and what kinds of skills do they possess? Then provide your personal critique of the organization. Overall how significant do you feel it is? What are its particular strengths? Weaknesses?
a. BRIDGE
b. Habitat for Humanity
c. Independent Housing Services
d. Chinatown Neighborhood Improvement Center
e. The San Francisco Tenant’s Union
f. S.F. Housing Authority
g. S.F. Redevelopment Agencyh. S.F. Mayor's Office of Housing
i. North of Market Planning Council
j. Ecumenical Housing of Marin
k. TODCO (Tenants and Owners Development Corporation)
l. Mission Housing Development Corporation
m. The Mission Economic Development Association (MEDA)n. San Francisco Renaissance
o. Asian Inc.
p. CARITAs
q. The California Housing Partnership
II. Book Report
If you choose to do a book report your eight page written report should assume that the reader is not familiar with the book. Identify the author, title, and date of publication. Describe the background and any ideological or professional orientation the author has to the extent you can determine this yourself (or by talking to me). Describe the issue the book is addressing. Then selectively describe major points the book makes. Use your judgment in selecting what you consider to be the most important contributions the book makes -- don't just give a rehash of the contents. Describe how the book fits into the context of the course -- what it adds and whether the book supplements or runs counter to other material we have been discussing. How would people interested in housing policy best use the book? Finally give your own personal critique of the book: what are its strengths and weaknesses? In general do you agree or disagree with it? Are there specific points, which helped sharpen your understanding of housing issues? Following are suggested books:
Bernick, Michael and Robert Cervero. 1997. Transit Villages in the 21st Century.
Bratt, Rachel. 1989. Rebuilding A Low-Income Housing Policy.
Bratt, Rachel, Langley Keyes, Alex Schwartz, and Avis Vidal. 1994. Confronting the Management Challenge Affordable Housing in the Non-Profit Sector.
Bullard, Robert, Eugene Grigsby, and Charles Lee, eds. 1994. Residential Apartheid
Cooper-Marcus, Clare and Wendy Sarkissian. 1986. Housing as If People Mattered.
DeLeon, Richard, Left Coast City
Hoch, Charles and Robert A. Slayton. 1989. New Homeless and Old.
Jencks, Christopher, The Homeless
Kirp, David L, et al.. 1995. Our Town: Race, Housing, and the Soul of Suburbia.
Liebow, Elliot, Tell Them Who I Am
McCamant, Charles and K. Durrett, Cohousing (2nd edition)
National Congress for Community Economic Development. 1995. Tying it All Together: The Comprehensive Achievements of Community-Based Development Organizations.
Parzen, Julia Ann and Michael Hall Kieschnick. 1992. Credit Where Its Due.
III. Housing/Community Development Policy Analysis
The third possibility is to analyze a current housing or community development policy. Your report may be based on any appropriate combination of library research and interviews. In your report you should specify clearly what the housing policy issue is. Who does it affect? How large and issue is it? What is at stake? Then provide a balanced and factual description of what is known about the issue. Look at different perspectives on the issue: what, if anything do different people or organizations think should be done about it? Finally clearly state your own analysis of what should be done about the issue. This option is particularly appropriate for Urban Studies majors who are taking the policy analysis emphasis and other students who have taken URBS/PLSI 480 "Policy Analysis." Read Eugene Bardach, The Eight Step Path of Policy Analysis for excellent background on how to do a policy analysis. Following are some housing and community development policies, which would be good for a policy analysis paper:
a. Single room occupancy hotels
b. The HUD Reorganization
c. Second unit development (Inlaws, accessory units)
d. The San Francisco Enterprise Community Program
e. Section 8 existing housing
f. The low rent public housing program
g. Community Development Block Grants (in S.F. or elsewhere)
h. Rent stabilization
i. Tax increment financing for redevelopment/housing
j. Shared housing
k. Homelessness and homeless policy
l. Policies to increase ownership opportunities for first time homebuyers
m. Housing affordability
n. Mobile home regulation
o. Earthquake safety and low income housing in San Francisco
p. The federal mortgage interest deduction or other tax policies that affect housing
q. Artists Live/work space
r. Condominiums and cooperatives
s. Cohousing
IV. Housing and Community Development Plan Report
All cities receiving federal CDBG or HOME funding or funding for HOPWA or Emergency Shelter Grants must prepare a "Consolidated Plan" which analyzes the city's housing needs and resources and articulates a five year plan to address needs. These "Consolidated Plans" are public documents.
Read Richard LeGates and John Landis "Housing Planning and Policy" -- a chapter which will be published in the ICMA Practice of Local Government Planning -- which you can obtain from me. Obtain the consolidated plan for a Bay Area city or county that interests you. Carefully read the plan in light of what LeGates and Landis say about how housing planning should be done and course readings. Identify and if possible conduct an interview with the person within local government most responsible for preparing the consolidated plan. Prepare an eight page double spaced typed report on the consolidated plan.