Online First: Emergency Management 2.0 This Time, It’s Financial

Emergency Management 2.0

This Time, It’s Financial

1. David Oliver Kasdan1

1. ¹Incheon National University, Korea

1. David Oliver Kasdan, Department of Public Administration, Incheon National University, 119 Academy-ro, Yeonsu-Gu, Incheon 406-772, South Korea. Email:dokasdan@gmail.com

Abstract

There are more causes of fiscal distress than remedies. A nascent field is emerging built on the practices utilized to confront fiscal distress. The usual method follows a federal structure in that the state has ultimate responsibility when local governments fail, leaving communities to live in a “new normal” of austere oversight. As more urban areas contend with extended economic downturns, political paralysis, and social apathy in the face of unsustainable governance, there is a need for a strategic approach to the administrative side of fiscal distress management. Although cutbacks, consolidations, and service reductions are the tactical tools of the trade, emergency financial management also requires a guiding strategy that protects the fundamental purpose and character of the local government. This article uses ideas from disaster management and the fiscal crises in Michigan to develop four key elements in a strategic approach to emergency financial management.

• fiscal distress
 
• financial emergency
 
• strategic management

Online First: The Impact of Advocacy Organizations on Low-Income Housing Policy in U.S. Cities

The Impact of Advocacy Organizations on Low-Income Housing Policy in U.S. Cities

1. Anaid Yerena1

1. ¹University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA

1. Anaid Yerena, Planning, Policy, and Design, University of California, Irvine, 300 Social Ecology I, Irvine, CA 92697-7075, USA. Email: anaid.y@uci.edu

Abstract

Financial support for affordable housing competes with many other municipal priorities. This work seeks to explain the variation in support for affordable housing among U.S. cities with populations of 100,000 or more. Using multivariate statistical analysis, this research investigates political explanations for the level of city expenditures on housing and community with a particular interest in the influence of housing advocacy organizations (AOs). Data for the model were gathered from secondary sources, including the U.S. Census and the National Center for Charitable Statistics. Among other results, the analysis indicates that, on average, the political maturity of AOs has a statistically significant, positive effect on local housing and community development expenditures.

• affordable housing
 
• advocacy organizations
 
• municipal expenditures

Online First: From Breaking Down Barriers to Breaking Up Communities The Expanding Spatial Strategies of Fair Housing Advocacy

From Breaking Down Barriers to Breaking Up Communities

The Expanding Spatial Strategies of Fair Housing Advocacy

1. Edward G. Goetz1

1. ¹University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA

1. Edward G. Goetz, University of Minnesota, 301, 19th Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA. Email: egoetz@umn.edu

Abstract

This article offers a critique of developments within fair housing thought in the United States that have brought it into conflict with community development approaches to high-poverty, segregated urban neighborhoods. I argue that the spatial strategies of Fair Housing have expanded from an initial orientation toward opening up the suburbs to nonwhite occupancy to efforts aimed at breaking up communities of color in central areas. The shifting gaze of Fair Housing toward neighborhoods of concentrated poverty has manifest itself in both a criticism of and opposition to affordable housing programs in central areas and support for what Chicago Fair Housing Attorney Alexander Polikoff calls the “radical surgery” of displacement and demolition of existing communities of color.

• housing
 
• segregation
 
• fair housing