IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/urbstu/v54y2017i1p137-157.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Lease it or lose it? The implications of New York’s Land Lease Initiative for public housing preservation

Author

Listed:
  • Shomon Shamsuddin

    (Tufts University, USA)

  • Lawrence J Vale

    (MIT, USA)

Abstract

Urban scholars frequently call for equitable and inclusive growth to create more just cities but this vision has proven elusive in urban development – especially involving low-income communities and affordable housing. In 2013, the New York City Housing Authority proposed to leverage private development to benefit low-income residents by supporting market-rate residential construction on open space in public housing sites to pay for needed improvements to subsidised units. The Land Lease Initiative was a seemingly win-win plan but quickly faced backlash from multiple quarters. Using interviews with key housing authority officials and analysis of plan documents and media coverage, we show how the content and framing of the plan stoked fears of displacement, despite stated intentions. Our analysis reveals that criticism overlooked four unconventional ideas for preserving public housing, which are embedded in the plan: (1) retaining all public housing units and high-rise public housing towers on site, as opposed to demolishing them; (2) deconcentrating poverty by increasing residential density, instead of displacing poor residents; (3) adding affordable housing units to the site of low-income public housing; and (4) creating mixed-income communities around buildings, in addition to within them. The findings suggest that the future of affordable housing in the neoliberal era involves blurring the line between preservation and privatisation.

Suggested Citation

  • Shomon Shamsuddin & Lawrence J Vale, 2017. "Lease it or lose it? The implications of New York’s Land Lease Initiative for public housing preservation," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 54(1), pages 137-157, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:54:y:2017:i:1:p:137-157
    DOI: 10.1177/0042098015614248
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0042098015614248
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0042098015614248?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nicholas Dagen Bloom, 2012. "Learning From New York," Journal of the American Planning Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 78(4), pages 418-431, October.
    2. Peter Marcuse, 2009. "From critical urban theory to the right to the city," City, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(2-3), pages 185-197, June.
    3. George Galster, 2007. "Neighbourhood Social Mix as a Goal of Housing Policy: A Theoretical Analysis," International Journal of Housing Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(1), pages 19-43.
    4. Kirk McClure, 2006. "The low‐income housing tax credit program goes mainstream and moves to the suburbs," Housing Policy Debate, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(3), pages 419-446.
    5. George Galster, 2007. "Neighbourhood Social Mix as a Goal of Housing Policy: A Theoretical Analysis," European Journal of Housing Policy, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 7(1), pages 19-43.
    6. Jason Hackworth & Neil Smith, 2001. "The changing state of gentrification," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 92(4), pages 464-477, November.
    7. Kathe Newman & Philip Ashton, 2004. "Neoliberal Urban Policy and New Paths of Neighborhood Change in the American Inner City," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 36(7), pages 1151-1172, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. repec:thr:techub:10018:y:2021:i:1:p:241-255 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Hazel Easthope & Laura Crommelin & Sophie-May Kerr & Laurence Troy & Ryan van den Nouwelant & Gethin Davison, 2022. "Planning for Lower-Income Households in Privately Developed High-Density Neighbourhoods in Sydney, Australia," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(4), pages 213-228.
    3. Nikos Karadimitriou & Thomas Maloutas & Vassilis P. Arapoglou, 2021. "Multiple Deprivation and Urban Development in Athens, Greece: Spatial Trends and the Role of Access to Housing," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-20, March.
    4. Edward Goetz, 2011. "Gentrification in Black and White," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 48(8), pages 1581-1604, June.
    5. Lind, Hans & Annadotter, Kerstin & Björk, Folke & Högberg, Lovisa & af Klintberg, Tord, 2014. "Sustainable renovation strategy in the Swedish Million Homes Programme: A case study," Working Paper Series 14/2, Royal Institute of Technology, Department of Real Estate and Construction Management & Banking and Finance.
    6. Kevin Brown, 2010. "The Economics and Ethics of Mixed Communities: Exploring the Philosophy of Integration Through the Lens of the Subprime Financial Crisis in the US," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 97(1), pages 35-50, November.
    7. Atuesta, Laura H. & Hewings, Geoffrey J.D., 2019. "Housing appreciation patterns in low-income neighborhoods: Exploring gentrification in Chicago," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 35-47.
    8. David Manley & Maarten van Ham, 2011. "Living in deprived neighbourhoods in Scotland. Occupational mobility and neighbourhood effects," ERSA conference papers ersa10p547, European Regional Science Association.
    9. Talja Blokland & Julia Nast, 2014. "From Public Familiarity to Comfort Zone: The Relevance of Absent Ties for Belonging in Berlin's Mixed Neighbourhoods," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(4), pages 1142-1159, July.
    10. Joanne Bretherton & Nicholas Pleace, 2011. "A Difficult Mix," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 48(16), pages 3433-3447, December.
    11. Scott Baum & Kathryn Arthurson & Kara Rickson, 2010. "Happy People in Mixed-up Places: The Association between the Degree and Type of Local Socioeconomic Mix and Expressions of Neighbourhood Satisfaction," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 47(3), pages 467-485, March.
    12. Woldehanna, Tassew & Tafere, Yisak & Yonis, Manex B., 2022. "Social capital as a double-edged sword for sustained poverty escapes in Ethiopia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    13. Harizi Riadh, 2021. "Land artificialization, economic growth, and road insecurity: Theoretical improvements and empirical validation for the case of Algeria," Technium Social Sciences Journal, Technium Science, vol. 18(1), pages 241-255, April.
    14. Shamai, Moshe & Hananel, Ravit, 2021. "One+One+One=A lot," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    15. Valeria Saiu, 2020. "Evaluating Outwards Regeneration Effects (OREs) in Neighborhood-Based Projects: A Reversal of Perspective and the Proposal for a New Tool," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-16, December.
    16. Dangschat, Jens S., 2014. "Residentielle Segregation," Forschungsberichte der ARL: Aufsätze, in: Gans, Paul (ed.), Räumliche Auswirkungen der internationalen Migration, volume 3, pages 63-77, ARL – Akademie für Raumentwicklung in der Leibniz-Gemeinschaft.
    17. Sabine Meier, 2018. "Being Accommodated, Well Then? ‘Scalar Narratives’ on Urban Transformation and Asylum Seekers’ Integration in Mid-Sized Cities," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 3(4), pages 129-140.
    18. Durden, Garey C. & Gaynor, Patricia E., 2015. "Publishing in The Journal of Regional Analysis and Policy and an Evaluation (via Citation Counts) of JRAP’s Influence on Scholarship in Regional Science," Journal of Regional Analysis and Policy, Mid-Continent Regional Science Association, vol. 45(2).
    19. David J Madden, 2018. "Pushed off the map: Toponymy and the politics of place in New York City," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 55(8), pages 1599-1614, June.
    20. Heike Hanhörster & Susanne Wessendorf, 2020. "The Role of Arrival Areas for Migrant Integration and Resource Access," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(3), pages 1-10.
    21. Roger Vincent Patulny & Alan Morris, 2012. "Questioning the Need for Social Mix: The Implications of Friendship Diversity amongst Australian Social Housing Tenants," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 49(15), pages 3365-3384, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:54:y:2017:i:1:p:137-157. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/urbanstudiesjournal .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.