Topic: Pobreza e inequidad

Grabaciones de webinarios y eventos

Building Trust and Taking Action: Local Climate Justice Initiatives in Legacy Cities (Webinar)

Julio 12, 2022 | 12:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.

Free, offered in inglés

Watch the recording

As the effects of climate change intensify, communities of color will continue to suffer the most from excessive urban heat, flooding, displacement, poor water and air quality, and other environmental and economic harms. In response, mid-sized, formerly industrial legacy cities such as Providence, Rhode Island; Richmond, Virginia; and Cincinnati, Ohio, have recently adopted climate equity plans.

City officials developed these plans in close collaboration with residents, community-based organizations, and climate experts. The plans outline strategies and interventions to mitigate the risks and disparate impacts that climate change will have on Black, brown, and indigenous families in their most vulnerable neighborhoods.

In this webinar, Leah Bamberger, executive director of the Northeastern University Climate Justice and Sustainability Hub and former director of sustainability for the city of Providence, will share lessons learned in Providence, as well as context for current environmental justice efforts at the local government level. City of Providence Sustainability Director Emily Koo and Climate Justice Policy Associate Elder Gonzalez Trejo will talk about the city’s Racial and Environmental Justice Committee and its Climate Justice Plan, the link between planning and public health, and how municipal actors can promote climate justice through stronger community engagement. Panelists will also consider how to ensure that local governments’ sustainability priorities respond directly to the needs of diverse communities.

Cosponsored by the Future of Small Cities Institute, this webinar is the final installment in the Greening America’s Small Cities series.

Moderator

Joe Schilling, Senior Policy and Research Associate, Urban Institute

Speakers

Leah Bamberger, Executive Director, Northeastern University Climate Justice and Sustainability Hub and former Director of Sustainability, City of Providence

Emily Koo, Director of Sustainability, City of Providence

Elder Gonzalez Trejo, Climate Justice Policy Associate, City of Providence


Detalles

Fecha(s)
Julio 12, 2022
Time
12:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.
Registration Period
Junio 16, 2022 - Julio 12, 2022
Idioma
inglés
Registration Fee
Free
Costo
Free

Palabras clave

mitigación climática, planificación ambiental, inequidad, planificación de uso de suelo, gobierno local, planificación, desarrollo sostenible

Greening on the Ground: Community-Driven Strategies for Achieving Climate Resilience and Equity

Abril 19, 2022 | 12:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.

Free, offered in inglés

Smaller legacy cities have fewer resources than their larger or more prosperous counterparts do for mitigating and adapting to the more intense and frequent heat waves and flooding caused by climate change. In addition to broader citywide policies and plans, local officials and nonprofit leaders must forge new partnerships to develop innovative greening programs at the community and neighborhood levels.

Groundwork USA’s Climate Safe Neighborhoods Partnership offers smaller legacy cities an effective model for greening neighborhoods, rendering them more equitable and climate resilient. Join us to hear how Groundwork’s community-driven greening strategies in Elizabeth, New Jersey; Pawtucket, Rhode Island; Cincinnati, Ohio; and 10 other cities helped catalyze systemic change, strengthen civic infrastructure, and advance equitable neighborhood regeneration in these capacity-challenged communities. This webinar is co-sponsored by the Future of Small Cities Institute.


Detalles

Fecha(s)
Abril 19, 2022
Time
12:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.
Idioma
inglés
Registration Fee
Free
Costo
Free

Palabras clave

mitigación climática, pobreza

Lincoln Institute Is Now Convening the I’m HOME Network

By Will Jason, Marzo 10, 2022

 

As part of a multipronged effort to address the housing affordability crisis, the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy is overseeing an initiative to promote manufactured housing as a source of wealth-building home ownership and stable rental housing. The Lincoln Institute is the new convenor of the Innovations in Manufactured Homes (I’m HOME) Network, which was founded in 2005 by Prosperity Now (formerly the Corporation for Enterprise Development) to counteract stigma associated with manufactured housing, change public policy, and improve industry practices.

“We need to protect the largest source of unsubsidized affordable housing in the United States. Manufactured homes are an underappreciated solution to the housing affordability crisis,” said Lincoln Institute President and CEO George W. McCarthy. “The Lincoln Institute is grateful to Prosperity Now for its longstanding leadership, and we are committed to continuing their work to make manufactured homes a secure and accessible onramp to homeownership for millions of American families.”

“Prosperity Now is extremely proud of the success of I’m HOME over the years,” said Doug Ryan, vice president for policy and applied research for Prosperity Now. “As a network, we advanced policies, scaled programs, and helped reduce the stigma attached to manufactured and mobile homes and their owners. We are thrilled that the work will continue and grow at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and look forward to many years of partnership in the field.” 

Modern manufactured homes are often indistinguishable from traditional houses, but they cost less to build thanks to an efficient construction process. However, several barriers prevent manufactured homes from reaching their potential.  

First, manufactured homes have a reputation for poor quality that dates to early mobile homes, even though models built after 1976 adhere to rigorous national standards. Second, a lack of good financing options means that loans on manufactured homes are often more expensive and less secure than traditional mortgages. Finally, many states fail to create legal pathways for residents to easily purchase the land on which their homes sit, leaving residents vulnerable to predatory landlords. 

The I’m HOME Network will work to remove all these barriers through research, analysis, technical assistance, and engagement with policy makers. The network includes homeowners, advocates, academics, policy makers, lenders, manufacturers, developers, and others who, together, can effect change in the private sector and at all levels of government. 

“The first step in reenergizing I’m HOME will be to listen to the many manufactured-unit owners and other members of this network to ensure that we are taking it in the direction they wish to go,” said Lincoln Institute Senior Fellow Jim Gray, who will oversee the network. 

Convening the I’m HOME Network is part of the Lincoln Institute’s larger effort to address the housing affordability crisis as part of its goal to reduce poverty and spatial inequality. The institute recently published a report outlining comprehensive and balanced housing strategies, it is conducting research, and it is collaborating with the Housing Solutions Lab at the NYU Furman Center to help local governments develop such strategies. The Lincoln Institute is also working with the Underserved Mortgage Markets Coalition to create a bigger role for government-sponsored housing enterprises in securing housing finance opportunities for families not traditionally served by the private market. 

 


 

Will Jason is director of communications at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.

Image: Mobile homes in Montauk, New York. Credit: rjlerich via Getty Images. 

Curso

Gestión del Suelo para la Vivienda Social y Espacialmente Inclusiva

Mayo 30, 2022 - Agosto 19, 2022

Free, ofrecido en español


Descripción

El curso aborda la segregación de la vivienda de los más pobres, los factores que la causan, sus efectos nocivos y las oportunidades que ofrecen las políticas de vivienda social integrada. Se analizan las ideas comunes que perpetúan la segregación en las ciudades, como la atención casi exclusiva a la formalidad en el acceso a la vivienda, al igual que otros factores que inciden: la relación entre la desigualdad y la forma urbana, los efectos de la mezcla social en el valor de las propiedades, y el comportamiento de los mercados inmobiliarios, entre otros. También se examina la participación de las personas, las empresas y el gobierno en las políticas habitacionales, y se debaten conceptos y experiencias de programas públicos de viviendas socialmente integradas en diferentes países.

Relevancia

Las políticas tradicionales de vivienda social restan importancia a la segregación y privilegian exclusivamente el acceso a la vivienda formal. Sin embargo, la segregación espacial reduce las oportunidades de familias y grupos vulnerables, y suele agravar problemas sociales como la violencia, la deserción escolar y el tráfico de drogas. Una buena localización trae oportunidades, mientras que una mala conlleva obstáculos. Ambas suelen ser el resultado de distintas acciones y políticas públicas, por lo que estudiar y conocer la importancia que tiene una localización no segregada puede ser crucial para mejorar las políticas de suelo y de vivienda social.

Descargar la convocatoria


Detalles

Fecha(s)
Mayo 30, 2022 - Agosto 19, 2022
Período de postulación
Febrero 23, 2022 - Marzo 21, 2022
Selection Notification Date
Abril 21, 2022 at 6:00 PM
Idioma
español
Costo
Free
Registration Fee
Free
Tipo de certificado o crédito
Lincoln Institute certificate

Palabras clave

vivienda, inequidad, planificación, pobreza, políticas públicas, segregación

How Smarter State Policy Can Revitalize America’s Cities

By Allison Ehrich Bernstein, Febrero 8, 2022

 

American cities need to pursue creative new strategies as they rebuild from the COVID-19 pandemic and work to address longstanding social and economic inequities. Too often, however, cities face stiff headwinds in the form of state laws and policies that hinder their efforts to build healthy neighborhoods, provide high-quality public services, and foster vibrant economies in which all residents have an opportunity to thrive, according to a new Policy Focus Report by Center for Community Progress Senior Fellow Alan Mallach from the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and the Center for Community Progress.  

With a massive infusion of funds from the American Rescue Plan into cities and states, advocates for urban revitalization have an unprecedented opportunity to engage with state policy makers in creating a more prosperous, equitable future, Mallach writes in the report, From State Capitols to City Halls: Smarter State Policies for Stronger Cities. “If there’s one central message in this report, it’s that states matter—and that those who care about the future of our cities need to direct far greater attention to them,” he writes.  

Based on a detailed analysis of the complex yet critical relationship between states and their cities, the report illustrates how state policies and practices affect the course of urban revitalization, from the ways cities raise revenues to the conditions under which they can finance redevelopment. The report provides a rich picture of how state laws and practices can help or hinder equitable urban revitalization, drawing upon examples and strategies from across the country and highlighting the recurrent city–state tug-of-war that both must move beyond to work together for mutual benefit.  

The report also breaks down what goes into successful revitalization, and how leaders can use legal and policy tools to bring about more equitable outcomes. Mallach recommends five underlying principles that should ground state policy related to urban revitalization: target areas of greatest need, think regionally, break down silos, support cities’ own efforts, and build in equity and inclusivity.  

“This report is thorough, relevant, and timely—and it provides a critical perspective on the importance of building capacity to ensure stronger alignment between state and local policy makers to improve equity and inclusion,” said Sue Pechilio Polis, the director of health and wellness for the National League of Cities. “A detailed accounting of all of the ways state laws impact municipalities, this essential report will be a must read for state and local policy makers.”  

“As this Policy Focus Report details, state governments must be true partners with their cities in order to realize meaningful, equitable revitalization across the board,” said Jessie Grogan, associate director of reduced poverty and spatial inequality at the Lincoln Institute. “By deliberately incorporating equity into economic growth and community work across locations and sectors, leaders at every level can foster truly progressive change.”  

From State Capitols to City Halls offers specific state policy directions to help local governments build fiscal and service delivery capacity, foster a robust housing market, stimulate a competitive economy, cultivate healthy neighborhoods and quality of life, and build human capital, all with the goal of bringing about a more sustainable, inclusive revival in American cities and towns. The report’s recommendations offer a practical roadmap to help state policy makers take a fresh look at their own laws and further more effective advocacy for substantive change by local officials and non-governmental actors.  

“We all deserve access to stable jobs, affordable housing, and green spaces, but unfortunately our systems aren’t built to guarantee that for future and even current generations,” said Massachusetts State Senator Eric P. Lesser, who chairs the Gateway Cities Caucus and the Economic Development Committee. “This report takes a thoughtful look at how we as policy makers can have a direct impact on building inclusive cities for all. From State Capitols to City Halls: Smarter State Policies for Stronger Cities provides real tools to support our communities, break down policies that breed inequality, and give everyone a fair shot at a high quality of life.”  

While successful strategies will vary from state to state, Mallach stresses that all policy makers must remember that every state is fundamental to its cities’ futures as places of equity and inclusion. “In the final analysis,” he notes, “states play a central, even essential, role in making revitalization possible—or, conversely, frustrating local revitalization efforts. This report should encourage public officials and advocates for change to make states more supportive, engaged partners with local governments and other stakeholders in their efforts to make our cities stronger, healthier places for all.” 

The report is available for download on the Lincoln Institute’s website: https://www.lincolninst.edu/publications/policy-focus-reports/state-capitols-city-halls
 


Image: USA/Alamy Stock Photo

 

Building Community in Trenton

By Liz Farmer, Enero 27, 2022

 

At Capital City Farm, the first commercial urban farm in Trenton, New Jersey, more than 37 varieties of fruits, vegetables, and flowers grow on two formerly abandoned city-owned acres. The farm, run by the D&R Greenway Land Trust, is a financially self-sufficient operation that donates 30 percent of its produce to the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen and sells the rest to nearby markets. A local community development and environmental nonprofit runs a well-established youth gardening program at the farm, which has won several awards since its founding in 2016. 

There’s no question that Capital City Farm is a success story on many levels, from repurposing a trash-strewn lot to involving the local community in its development and operations. Now the city is hoping to emulate that success, working closely with local residents as it sets out to convert additional vacant lots into community gardens. The effort is part of a recently launched plan called Fight the Blight, which will include property demolition and redevelopment. 

Trenton, population 83,000, has a disproportionate number of neglected and vacant properties: 1,500 of them in a city that covers just 7.5 square miles. As the city embarks on addressing this issue, officials are sensitive to the fact that, for residents in neglected urban neighborhoods, municipal improvement efforts can be a double-edged sword. On the one hand, fixing up vacant lots and tearing down condemned buildings yields major quality of life improvements, including improving public safety and increasing community morale. But on the other hand, the sudden arrival of plans and projects developed without local input can be an unwelcome signal to residents that the future of the neighborhood is out of their hands and might not include them. 

“Trenton . . . has historically been behind the eight ball” on securing local input in revitalization efforts, said the city’s principal planner, Stephani Register. “The way we’re approaching it now is this idea of ‘let’s give the people back their power.’ If we do that, we as an administration get better participation from residents. The question is, how do you do that for communities of color who have been disenfranchised for so long because they didn’t have the right information, and the tools that are out there have been used against them.” 

An interdisciplinary team from Trenton is exploring these issues through its participation in the Lincoln Institute’s Legacy Cities Communities of Practice project. Over the past year, teams from three legacy cities (Trenton; Akron, Ohio; and Dearborn, Mich.) have met regularly to facilitate peer learning, gain insights from expert faculty on issues ranging from racial equity to fiscal health, and access resources and support to tackle entrenched citywide policy issues with place-based project approaches. Trenton’s team includes Register, mayoral aide Rick Kavin, Jamilah Harris, an analyst from the state Department of Environmental Protection, and Caitlin Fair, executive director of the nonprofit East Trenton Collaborative (ETC). 

Legacy cities like Trenton are places that have experienced population and economic decline that has left them with common infrastructure and demographic challenges. Many of them have vast areas once full of people and industry that have now been abandoned and neglected. Smaller legacy cities have many of the same challenges as larger legacy cities like Detroit or Baltimore, said Jessie Grogan, associate director of Reduced Poverty and Spatial Inequality at the Lincoln Institute. But they tend not to draw the same national attention from think tanks or large philanthropic funders, and they tend to have smaller municipal staffs and budgets. 

“These cities are kind of left to solve really complex problems on their own,” she said. “These smaller cities are in a tough spot where they have enough capacity to know what the problems are, but not enough to know what the potential solutions are or what their peer cities are doing that’s working.” The Legacy Cities Community of Practice gives them an opportunity to compare notes, get new ideas, and support each other’s work. 

Trenton, for example, is now working to engage the community in its Fight the Blight program using strategies employed in Syracuse, N.Y., and Flint, Mich., and detailed in the Lincoln Institute’s Policy Focus Report Revitalizing America’s Smaller Legacy Cities. Rather than the city taking the lead in projects like the effort to expand its community gardens, officials have turned to community organizations. Kavin said Capital City Farm has been advising the city on the youth apprenticeship aspect of the proposed community garden project. And Fair says the ETC would like to see community gardens become year-round, accessible neighborhood resources that support workforce development and a healthy community. 

“The idea is to marry [the gardens] with our youth employment program and for the city to create an opportunity for kids in the community to have a paid apprenticeship,” she said. “A goal of this initiative is to create a very public, community-oriented space that is open to everyone to use.” 

The vision is for Trenton’s new community gardens to be financially self-sustaining, providing a steady source of local jobs and local food thanks to greenhouses and hydroponic gardening that make cultivation possible during the winter months. Allowing year-round structures such as greenhouses on lots operated as community gardens required a zoning code change, which the Trenton team collaborated on and achieved by mid-2021. In the fall of 2021, the ETC began working on deciding which vacant lots in East Trenton they want to turn into community farms. 

Ultimately, the Trenton team sees the community farm project as just one way to start breaking down barriers between local government and residents and approach planning from a more holistic perspective. To that end, the city has also launched “how-to” informational sessions aimed at increasing small business owners’ access to capital and city contracts. Other sessions help homeowners figure out how to access grant money or loans to fix up their historic homes. And last year, Trenton launched an “Adopt a Lot” program that gives residents temporary access to vacant lots for their own gardens or other greenspace use. 

“With all of these programs, we’re trying to foster an environment where all local residents can have a say,” Kavin said. “Not just in their city’s planning, but also in their own future.” 

 


 

Liz Farmer is a fiscal policy expert and journalist whose areas of expertise include budgets, fiscal distress, and tax policy. She is currently a research fellow at the Rockefeller Institute’s Future of Labor Research Center.

Image: Volunteers plant seeds at Capital City Farm in Trenton, New Jersey. Credit: Capital City Farm.

Blueprint Shows How Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Can Create More Housing Opportunities

By Lincoln Institute Staff, Enero 20, 2022

 

Two weeks after a U.S federal agency rejected affordable housing plans from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, a coalition of housing organizations has released a blueprint showing how the two government-sponsored enterprises can better reach underserved mortgage markets.

On January 5, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) rejected three-year plans from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to comply with Duty to Serve, a federal regulation that requires the enterprises to prioritize and improve affordable housing finance opportunities in three historically neglected markets: manufactured housing, affordable housing preservation, and rural housing. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac must substantially improve their plans in all three areas, and a new blueprint from the Underserved Mortgage Markets Coalition provides a path that would likely lead to approval.

The coalition consists of 20 leading U.S. affordable housing organizations seeking to hold Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac accountable to their founding purpose: to bring housing finance opportunities to American families not traditionally served by the private market.

I applaud FHFA for rejecting the proposed Duty to Serve plans,” said George W. McCarthy, president and CEO of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, one of the convenors of the coalition. “If Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac adopt the modest consensus recommendations of the Underserved Mortgage Markets Coalition, that would be a win for the enterprises, FHFA, and affordable housing in the United States.”

The coalition’s blueprint outlines key recommendations for the enterprises’ Duty to Serve plans for 2022–24. By recommending specific, prioritized action steps, the coalition hopes to expand and enhance the enterprises’ performance in underserved markets. The blueprint urges the enterprises to increase certain loan purchases in all three markets, improve loan products for rural low- and moderate-income borrowers, and allow for Low Income Housing Tax Credit-equity investment in non-rural markets.

The members of the Underserved Mortgage Markets Coalition include:

  • Center for Community Progress
  • cdcb
  • Enterprise Community Partners
  • Fahe
  • Grounded Solutions Network
  • Housing Assistance Council
  • Housing Partnership Network
  • Lincoln Institute of Land Policy
  • Local Initiatives Support Corporation
  • National Council of State Housing Agencies
  • National Community Stabilization Trust
  • National Housing Trust
  • NeighborWorks America
  • Next Step
  • Novogradac
  • Opportunity Finance Network
  • Prosperity Now
  • RMI
  • ROC USA
  • Stewards of Affordable Housing for the Future

 


 

Photograph: vkyryl via iStock / Getty Images Plus.

 

Oportunidades de becas de posgrado

2022 C. Lowell Harriss Dissertation Fellowship Program

Submission Deadline: April 1, 2022 at 6:00 PM

The Lincoln Institute's C. Lowell Harriss Dissertation Fellowship Program assists PhD students, primarily at U.S. universities, whose research complements the Institute's interests in land and tax policy. The program provides an important link between the Institute's educational mission and its research objectives by supporting scholars early in their careers.

For information on present and previous fellowship recipients and projects, please visit C. Lowell Harriss Dissertation Fellows, Current and Past


Detalles

Submission Deadline
April 1, 2022 at 6:00 PM


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