Investing in our assisted housing assets is a smart strategy to promote community sustainability since it can have the dual impact of providing opportunity to low-income households and revitalizing or sustaining the neighborhoods in which these homes are located.
CHESHIRE, Connecticut (PRWEB) April 26, 2018
The Public and Affordable Housing Research Corporation (PAHRC) at HAI Group, has released its new research spotlight, Strategies for Investing in Opportunity: An Assessment of the Assisted Housing Portfolio, Neighborhood Quality, and Opportunity Capital. The report finds that our current federally assisted housing assets can be leveraged to bring greater opportunity to people and places. Nearly half of all federally assisted rental units are located in neighborhoods that offer typical or above the area level of opportunity capital to residents. The term ‘opportunity capital’ represents the various opportunities for upward mobility in a neighborhood that residents can access and utilize to reach their goals, such as transit access, labor market access, educational opportunity, and health.
Keely Stater, Director of Research and Industry Intelligence at PAHRC said, “one in ten rental homes receives some type of federal rental assistance. Investing in our assisted housing assets is a smart strategy to promote community sustainability since it can have the dual impact of providing opportunity to low-income households and revitalizing or sustaining the neighborhoods in which these homes are located.”
Many communities have significant amounts of assisted housing in neighborhoods with average or above opportunity capital for their area; housing that low-income families can utilize as a springboard for economic mobility. Other communities face barriers that make leveraging their assisted housing portfolio more difficult and need tools to explore which investments will have the greatest impact. The report defines five investment strategies that community stakeholders can use to expand assisted housing in opportunity areas, bring opportunities to places, and preserve assisted housing in opportunity areas. Housing-led community development is a smart and cost-effective strategy that can have the dual impact of lifting families out of poverty as well as revitalizing communities.
“We are proud to support PAHRC’s research and this report,” said HAI Group president and CEO Ed Malaspina. “The Spotlight demonstrates the valuable assets our members have in terms of bringing opportunity to their communities through affordable housing. It also demonstrates how important an affordable home is to families and how it can contribute to their future.”
The Strategies for Investing in Opportunity: An Assessment of the Assisted Housing Portfolio, Neighborhood Quality, and Opportunity Capital study and accompanying interactive opportunity capital maps are available at https://www.housingcenter.com/research/research-reports/strategies-investing-opportunity/. Also available here are links to other research from PAHRC, like the Housing Impact report, formerly know as the PAHRC report, also sponsored by HAI Group and its industry partners.
About HAI Group
HAI Group® is the marketing name for a family of companies founded by and dedicated to housing, headquartered in Cheshire, Connecticut. While we are recognized as a pioneer of public and affordable housing insurance programs, insurance is not our only strength. We protect, preserve, and promote the sustainability of affordable housing with a wide array of products that support the challenges housing organizations face, offering insurance, strategic capital, research, advocacy, and training to meet the needs of over 1,500 housing organizations and more than 12,000 housing professionals across the nation. For a complete list of our companies, visit http://www.housingcenter.com.
About the Public and Affordable Housing Research Corporation
The Public and Affordable Housing Research Corporation (PAHRC) at HAI Group is a nonprofit research center dedicated to conducting research that promotes the national conversation about the importance of affordable housing. Through industry collaboration, data collection, and independent research, PAHRC spotlights the impact, outcomes, and value affordable housing brings to the families it serves and to the communities it supports. PAHRC also delivers data and tools that assist researchers, practitioners, and advocates to build an evidence-based case for why affordable housing matters. For more information about PAHRC, please visit http://www.housingcenter.com/research.
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