Jenna Collins’ Post

Nearly 300 Civil Rights, Housing, Faith, Environmental and Industry Organizations and a Local Elected Official Urge Biden Administration to Immediately Release Fair Housing Rule Groups implore White House to follow through on its commitments to create inclusive, resource-rich communities free of discrimination with the amenities everyone needs to thrive Washington, DC — Nearly 300 leading civil rights, housing, faith, environmental, industry organizations and a local elected official from throughout the nation wrote to President Biden, urging his administration to immediately release the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)’s final “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing” (AFFH) rule. AFFH, a provision of the Fair Housing Act, requires HUD or any entity that receives federal funding for housing and community development to use those funds and operate their programs in a manner that redresses inequities in the housing system and create inclusive, resource-rich communities that give everyone an opportunity to thrive. The proposed final AFFH rule will ensure a society in which everyone can live in a safe neighborhood with ample affordable and accessible housing options, fresh air, clean water, good public transportation, living-wage jobs, quality healthcare, healthy foods, affordable credit, and well-resourced schools. Read Full Press Release: https://lnkd.in/dhmSQPmE

Housing has several features that make it an ideal issue for bipartisanship, said Jake Grumbach, a public policy professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Housing laws are hyper-local and so don’t get much attention from national parties, which tend to push toward polarization. The subject is full of dense and wonky material that gets litigated through binder-thick planning reports instead of sound bites. It’s also hard to weaponize, since someone’s position on housing can be framed in ways that hew to either party’s ideology. Take, for instance, the YIMBY mantra of allowing taller buildings and reducing the permitting hurdles to build them. Is this, as many Democrats say, a way to create more affordable housing, reduce neighborhood segregation and give low-income households access to high-amenity areas and schools? Or is it, as Republicans say, a pro-business means of reducing regulation and enhancing property rights by giving landowners the freedom to develop housing? Is it, somehow, both?

Exciting news! Karp Strategies collaborated on a new report from The Century Foundation. The report delves into the intricate link between education and housing in New York State. Karp Strategies, in partnership with The Century Foundation, researched how the public responds to language around zoning, its impact on K–12 education, and what messaging would successfully persuade decision-makers and voters to reform damaging and exclusionary zoning practices, specifically in New York. Click below to read the report and find out about our finding: https://lnkd.in/eyb3GHmV #TheCenturyFoundation #KarpStrategies #Housing #urbanplanning #regionalplanning

As of December 2023, New York State is losing more residents per year than any other state in the country. People living in places as diverse as Westchester County, Long Island, Queens, and the Buffalo region are hurt by the laws that artificially drive up home prices and reduce educational opportunities for children of low-wage families. A new report from Richard Kahlenberg, Stefan Lallinger, and Halley Potter synthesizes one year of research into how #exclusionaryzoning creates unequal educational opportunities, how other jurisdictions across the United States have made #zoningreform a reality, and how proper messaging can shape the publics reaction to zoning reform efforts. Read the full report:

From 2021- "Escalating costs of living—including housing costs— (...) may prevent teachers, who have midlevel incomes, from moving to or staying in the area. This can be especially true for teachers working in high-poverty neighborhoods of increasingly unaffordable cities." --> "School districts and local governments interested in reducing turnover and growing the supply of teachers in urban schools might consider partnering to increase affordable housing closer to schools, offer housing stipends or low-cost loans, and make financial crisis grants available to teachers." JC: Housing proximity to schools as a workplace not only reinforces retention, but saves money and time on commuting costs, reduced environmental impact, and (probably) improved engagement in the school as a neighborhood, place-based institution. Urban Institute - Urban Land Institute American Planning Association Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority (WHEDA) League of Wisconsin Municipalities National League of Cities Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC) Wisconsin Public Education Network Middleton-Cross Plains Area School District Eau Claire Area School District American Planning Association Public Schools and Communities Division https://lnkd.in/gfMJxBCZ

New Yorkers are divided on City of Yes, a new legislation in the process of being made into law. Fans of it are advocating as being the best legislation mayor Eric Adams has developed to make NYC able to be more agile and supportive of building what's needed sooner (and to be fair, that is the intent or at least from how it has been explained). Near lifetime and Native New Yorkers alike fear the legislation (if passed as written currently) would drive the vast majority of us to be homeless as property developers looking for a piece of New York real estate and those who made fortunes buying property and flipping it. You can't blame them when you look at areas like Downtown Brooklyn and Long Island city where middle class individuals can no longer to afford to live there. In fact, a number of the homeless we find across the city were once New Yorkers who had homes, jobs and families. We have now come to properly realize, once you don't have to home to sleep in, maintaining everything else is very difficult. Look at Greenwich village who battles with NYU over what little they have left or Harlem's battle with Columbia as the two schools stealthily gobble the neighborhoods around them (and they are supposed to be not for profits?) I give credit to the city agency leaders such as Perris Straughter who have to deal with the fear and anxiety of community residents and still trying to convey the will of mayoral leaders. Behavioral science professionals like Suzanne Kirkendall, MPH, MCLC, and OD practitioners like Estee Hana Kim, Kathy Zamora, and Elizabeth MacKay, how can we help our city and leaders really address the housing crisis? Hopefully we can co-create a solution that is not at the expense of exterminating the last bits of housing individuals on the lower spectrum of income can access (because affordable housing in NYC isn't affordable to most people of NYC).

I'm thrilled to share that my honors thesis has been approved & is now available online! You can find "NIMBY Tears: White Homeowners' Racialized Opposition to Affordable Housing Development" in the Stanford Digital Repository: https://lnkd.in/gX2MRzjT. Surveying 520 white homeowners across the U.S., I experimentally demonstrate that support for a proposed affordable housing project is shaped by the perceived race of its future residents and respondents' racial attitudes. And, there's an important upshot: Racially motivated opponents of affordable housing mask their concerns behind reasons ostensibly unrelated to race. Many observers of public comment know that something is left unsaid when opponents complain about "neighborhood character," and scholarship has long established whites' attitudes towards race and housing are intertwined. But until now, there's been no evidence that catches racially motivated NIMBYs in the act of self-censorship. Thanks to work by Alexander Sahn, we know public commenters in San Francisco are disproportionately older, white, and homeowners, and that project approvals are better predicted by white commenters' preferences than those of other racial groups. Public comment distorts housing approvals - not only because it is more responsive to white homeowners, whose preferences I show are shaped in part by racial considerations, but also because it leaves policymakers unable to differentiate between honest concerns and those that mask racial motivations. By taking public commenters at their word, high-opportunity areas that have benefitted from the legacy of redlining can maintain their exclusivity, one NIMBY-filled meeting at a time. This is why state streamlining laws like SB 35/423 are so game-changing - they cut past this nonsense to approve desperately-needed housing in areas reluctant to meet their own housing goals. Policymakers who take seriously their commitments to advance racial justice and address the housing crisis may do well to reconsider the role of public comment as it informs them of their community's preferences and influences their decisions. I am so grateful for the support of my incredible advisor, Hakeem Jefferson. Working as his research assistant has been a highlight of my undergraduate career. I also owe so much to Ava Kuo, Regina Williams, and others who taught me what it takes to build affordable housing as I interned over the pandemic with First Community Housing. I'm also appreciative of State Senator Scott Wiener for his bold leadership on housing - I was inspired to write this thesis while working in your office. I'm glad to be in good company in the fight against the housing crisis. Next weekend, I graduate undergrad. Days later, I head to DC to intern in the Senate before returning in September to finish my MPP at Stanford. As I approach this turning point, I've never felt more excited, inspired, and dedicated to advance justice in my work and career.

The current housing crisis impacts Americans nationwide, cutting across diverse backgrounds. At the Terwilliger Center, we believe that housing is a bipartisan issue, requiring bipartisan cooperation for effective solutions. The Bipartisan Policy Center’s American Congressional Exchange (ACE) facilitates this collaboration, pairing members of Congress from opposite parties for visits to each of their respective districts. Last month, Rep. Pete Stauber (R-MN) visited Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL) in Chicago. Their trip focused heavily on the housing affordability challenges both representatives encounter in their districts and explored local initiatives offering potential solutions. https://lnkd.in/e9RNArT5 #Bipartisanship #HousingCrisis

Housing insecurity and justice system involvement often create a reinforcing, vicious cycle that has long-lasting effects for individuals, families, and communities, as well as government systems. The people harmed by this cycle are overwhelmingly low-income people of color. The NYU Furman Center’s Housing Solutions Lab partnered with the Center for Justice Innovation to explore innovations in housing solutions for justice-involved people. This paper explores ways that, in jurisdictions across the country, justice system actors and housing agencies have partnered to break this cycle. What the researchers found is that solutions exist. So often people throw up their hands at this problem, understandably given what we all know about the housing market. However, in diverse places across the country, housing and justice system practitioners are working together to design solutions. These innovations fall into four approaches: 1️⃣Preventing criminal justice involvement 2️⃣Connecting people early to resources 3️⃣Expanding access to housing 4️⃣Increasing housing supply Read our full report which highlights where this work is already happening, identifies successful approaches, and pinpoints the ingredients needed for the required collaborations: https://buff.ly/3VS5OiQ