The Urban Institute has tracked job trends for four decades, following unskilled workers during the 1990s boom, welfare leavers taking jobs, and, more recently, older workers during the recession. Our experts study workforce development, disability and employment, and the low-skill labor market. Read more.
The HOPE VI Panel Study research has highlighted that many residents of distressed public housing face severe health challenges. Our research shows that respondents' well-being has improved in important ways—they now live in housing that is substantially higher-quality and in neighborhoods that are dramatically safer. However, in this brief, we present findings that show that despite these improvements, respondents' health has continued to deteriorate rapidly; the level of reported health problems in 2009 are stunning, and the mortality rate is shockingly high.
A main goal of the HOPE VI program was to improve public housing by replacing failed developments with healthy and safe communities that offer a better quality of life for residents. This brief explores whether the safety gains for early relocates have been sustained and whether those who moved later have benefited equally— because these residents tended to be among the most vulnerable, there was good reason to think that they would not fare as well. We find that almost all former residents are now living in safer conditions and that improved safety and quality of life has been the greatest benefit of the Plan for Transformation for CHA residents.
Eight years after the Madden/Wells redevelopment started, this brief presents what has happened to the original residents, including the type of housing assistance they received and where they lived in 2009. Despite a number of challenges, we found that by 2009, all of the residents had relocated and nearly one in five former Madden/Wells residents was living in a new mixed-income housing development. Most of the former Madden/Wells residents reported that their current housing and neighborhood was better than Madden/Wells. However, only a minority lived in economically or racially diverse neighborhoods that offer real opportunities for themselves and their children.
This overview presents findings from the Chicago Panel Study, a follow up to the Urban Institute’s five-site HOPE VI Panel Study, to assess how the residents are faring as the Plan for Transformation progresses. We find that after 10 years, the story for CHA families is far more positive than many observers—including ourselves— would have predicted at the outset. Regardless of where they have moved, most families in our study are living in considerably better circumstances. However, the study also highlights the serious challenges that remain, most significantly, residents’ extremely poor health and persistently low rates of employment.
This paper examines the economic impact of health reform. The conclusion is that health reform is not likely to have a significant effect on the US economy or on employment. The changes in both spending and taxes generally have offsetting effects and are simply too small relative to the overall size of the economy to have much of an impact. The taxes on insurers and drug companies will be more than offset by new revenues from increased coverage. State and local governments should be beneficiaries as well as most small businesses. The effects will also turn fairly positive to the extent that the cost-containment efforts are successful.
Latest Research
Browse by Topic:
