Ideas from elsewhere: Gentrification and Immigration

Oct. 28, 2007
The Philadelphia Inquirer

Inclusionary zoning: Montgomery County, Md., Cambridge, Mass., other cities. This practice offers developers zoning incentives - such as the right to build more units in a given space, thus earning more profit - in return for reserving a given percentage of their project for buyers earning at or below the area's median income.

Community land trusts: Burlington, Vt.; Portland, Ore.; Albuquerque, N.M. These are a mechanism to ensure that affordable housing built by, say, a nonprofit group remains affordable. In this practice, the land on which a development sits is owned by a nonprofit membership corporation, whose board usually includes leaseholders and representatives of the surrounding community. Residents of the units get a very long (e.g. 99-year) lease; if they want to sell the lease and move out, they can, as long as they sell to a low- or moderate-income buyer.

Housing trust funds: Boulder, Colo.; King County, Wash.; state of Florida. Housing trust funds create a dedicated stream of funding for affordable housing. Such funds can offer low-cost financing for developers, renovation and rehabilitation loans, and other incentives. Philadelphia created such a fund, but its $15 million size falls dramatically short of local need. For more information on these affordable housing techniques, see www.policylink.com.

University Mortgage Assistance Programs. This isn't really an Idea from Elsewhere, since the University of Pennsylvania was a pioneer of this growing practice. Colleges that seek to stabilize their neighborhoods offer their employees help with the costs of buying a home if they purchase near the university. University employees are not all faculty; their large workforces encompass a range of incomes. Penn and others have tied such programs to complementary efforts to improve neighborhood schools and upgrade nearby retail corridors. Temple University just introduced a mortgage-assistance plan for its workers.