The Neighborhood Divide: Poverty, Place, and Low-Income Housing in Metropolitan Richmond, Virginia (USA)

Abstract

Although rental housing has historically maintained a peripheral position within the community-building sphere, the current economic volatility is evidence of how imbalanced housing policy can impact overall stability, particularly among low-income people within low-income communities. Economic and other macro-environmental shifts will have lasting and poignant impacts on low-income geographies; therefore, the state of rental housing within the context of urban neighborhoods will continue to be a critical policy matter. This research explores whether the low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) program encourages the development of housing with the physical and operational attributes that strengthen low-income neighborhoods. Given the program's growing dominance, this study analyzes whether specific characteristics associated with neighborhood revitalization are prevalent in LIHTC properties located within qualified census tracts. Also examined are the methodologies among nonprofit developers and for-profit developers relative to these development characteristics.

The findings indicate that properties under 50 units are more likely to be located within suburban qualified census tracts. Within the urban core, the results reveal that qualified census tract LIHTC developments are more often serving extremely low and low-income families. The research outcomes also show that nonprofit developers are more likely to serve lower incomes and utilize certified property management agents for these properties. Given the unique needs of urban and suburban low-income neighborhoods and a national environment that portents a growing dependence upon the LIHTC, the findings suggest that both enhanced coordination between state, regional, and local interests and innovation in resource allocation policy are critical to erasing the neighborhood divide that marginalizes low-income people in low-income communities.

Citation

Johnson, M.S. (2012), "The Neighborhood Divide: Poverty, Place, and Low-Income Housing in Metropolitan Richmond, Virginia (USA)", Camp Yeakey, C. (Ed.) Living on the Boundaries: Urban Marginality in National and International Contexts (Advances in Education in Diverse Communities, Vol. 8), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 353-387. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-358X(2012)0000008019