Category: News

Changes Across the Region:
People, Economy, and Well Being
Presented by Adam Okulicz-Kozaryn, Ph.D.

Wednesday, December 4th, 2013
1:00 – 4:00 PM 
Cumberland County College Luciano Conference Center 3322 College Drive in Vineland, NJ 08360  

Please register here

 

The Walter Rand Institute has reinstated its Faculty Fellow Program in order to facilitate applied research about issues of importance to the Southern New Jersey Region. We are pleased to announce that our Faculty Fellow for Fall 2013 is Dr. Adam Okulicz-Kozaryn.Dr. Adam Okulicz-Kozaryn received his Ph.D. in the field of Public Policy and Political Economy from the University of Texas at Dallas. He is currently Assistant Professor of Public Policy in the Department of Public Policy and Administration at Rutgers–Camden and the Data Center Manager at the Center for Urban Research and Education (CURE). He currently teaches graduate courses on Regional and Economic Development, Quantitative Methods, and Geographic Information Systems.

Dr. Okulicz-Kozaryn brings his expertise to WRI to investigate demographic, economic, and well-being factors across the Southern New Jersey region. His research will address issues of importance for a broad range of stakeholders:

• What employment sectors can be expected to grow?
• What assets are available to spur economic development?
• What impact has public health had across the region?
• How have migration patterns impacted the region?

Come to the WRI Forum About South Jersey on December 4 and be a part of the conversation as Dr. Okulicz-Kozaryn presents his findings and discusses their implications for the counties of Southern New Jersey.

For further inquiries, contact:
The Walter Rand Institute
411 Cooper Street
Camden, NJ 08102
(856) 225-6566
msk62@camden.rutgers.edu

“Concentration of Poverty in the New Millennium” 

Paul A. Jargowsky, Ph.D.

Professor of Public Policy, 
Rutgers University-Camden

 

Wednesday, November 6, 2013 – 12:15pm

Campus Center–Executive Private Dining Room

 

The problems of poverty are exacerbated when poor people live in dysfunctional high-poverty neighborhoods, where they are exposed to high levels of crime and violence and have limited access to educational and economic opportunities.  Growing up in such neighborhoods can affect children’s health and educational achievement.  This paper combines data from several sources to document the recent trends in concentrated poverty and the implications of those trends for social and housing policy.  Since 2000, the spatial concentration of poverty has surged, particularly since the housing crisis and recession began in 2008.  In particular, concentrated poverty has returned to and surpassed the peak levels of 1990, but with important differences in the distribution and composition of high-poverty neighborhoods.  For example, concentration of poverty has grown fastest among non-Hispanic whites.  High-poverty neighborhoods are substantially less likely to be composed of a single racial or ethnic group.   No longer confined to the central cities of major metropolitan areas, concentration of poverty has increased faster in smaller metropolitan areas.  Another change is that high-poverty census tracts are no longer found in one or two contiguous clusters, but are more widely scattered around metropolitan areas, including inner-ring suburban areas.  Concentration of poverty, therefore, remains an important social problem that is now affecting more groups in more diverse locations in the metropolitan landscape.

 

Affiliated CURE scholar Adam Okulicz-Kozaryn 

 is currently attending the Erasmus Happiness Economics  Research Organisation’s (EHRO) congress on the  advances in happiness economics held at the Erasmus  University Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

“Lessons from Mixed Housing Programs: Implications for Obama’s Choice Neighborhoods Initiative”

Hilary Silver, Ph.D.

Professor of Sociology and Urban Studies and Professor of Public Policy, 
Brown University

 

 

Friday, October 25, 2013 – 12:15pm

Campus Center–Executive Private Dining Room

Lunch will be provided

Hilary Silver is Professor of Sociology and Urban Studies and Professor of Public Policy at Brown University, and Editor of  the journal, City & Community.  Her research focuses on urban poverty, social exclusion, and discrimination, and analyzes social, employment, and housing policies in the US and Europe.  She is currently editing a book, Comparing Cities (Routledge), on internationally comparative urban studies.  Her 2009 film, Southside: The Fall and Rise of an Inner-City Neighborhood, will be followed by Last Resorts, currently in production, on long-term trajectories of the chronically homeless.  Silver is also a Commissioner of the Providence Housing Authority.  Her talk is based on “Mixing Policies: Expectations and Achievements” in Cityscape (2013) and “Obama’s Urban Policy” in City & Community (2010).

Dr. Jargowsky accepted the invitation to serve a 3-year term on the editorial board of the prestigious peer-reviewed academic journal Housing Policy Debate.  The journal provides a venue for original research relating to U.S. housing policy. Subjects include affordable housing policy, fair housing policy, land use regulations influencing housing affordability, metropolitan development trends, and linkages among housing policy and energy, environmental, and transportation policy.

Housing Policy Debate is published quarterly. Most issues feature a Forum section and an Articles section. The Forum, which highlights a current debate, features a central article and responding comments that represent a range of perspectives. All articles in the Forum and Articles sections undergo a double-blind peer review process. On a recurring basis, Housing Policy Debate also features an Outlook section where the editors, occasionally with expert guest writers, comment on emerging areas of housing and metropolitan research or current events.