Center for Urban Research and Education (Cure) and Office of Civic Engagement Joint Seminars on Urban Issues

Anne B. Shlay, Ph.D.

Professor of Sociology
Temple University

“The Social and Political Exclusion of Renters: Preliminary Ideas”

Tuesday, February 26, 2013 – 12:20pm
Private Exec. Dining Room, Campus Center

In the wake of the recent housing crisis, many Americans will be renters for longer periods of time than previously anticipated. Homeownership will eventually make its return as the quintessential goal of housing policy. But until then, people will rent. In light of this, there may be a window through which it becomes possible to analyze and advocacy for changes in ideas about renting and rental housing policy. This paper is an incremental step in this direction.

Currently, renting is viewed as undesirable form of land use. Renters are not considered to be community members. Renters are virtual housing and community pariahs in American society. The only apparent cure for this alleged renting malady is homeownership. To this end, policy has focused on low income homeowner, ultimately trapping poor families within the grip of the predatory housing market. For the typical middle class homeowner, the last several years of crisis have been a trial. But for low income families, the housing crisis has been a complete disaster.

Please click here for the event flyer.

An affordable housing issue affecting the “other” Camden

In today’s BBC News: Camden Council to move poorer families out of the borough

Dr. Jargowsky quoted in the Phila Inquirer on Feb. 10, 2013

Center director Paul Jargowsky was quoted in an article that appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer on Sunday, February 10, 2013, entitled: Amid crushing poverty and crime, Camden fights on

Panel discussion on making cities more livable, Feb 13 @ 5:30 pm – Penn IUR

Our colleagues at the Penn Institute for Urban Research are hosting a panel discussion titled:

Place-Based Interventions: Exploring the Research and Evidence

on February 13 @ 5:30pm

Please click here for the event flyer

Center for Urban Research and Education (Cure) and Office of Civic Engagement Joint Seminars on Urban Issues

Stefanie DeLuca, Ph.D.

Johns Hopkins University

“Why Poor People Move (and Where They Go): Residential Mobility, Selection, and Racial Segregation”

Thursday, January 24, 2013 – 12:20pm
Faculty Lounge, 3rd floor Armitage Hall

The reproduction of segregation and unequal neighborhood attainment has long been a social problem identified by scholars. Despite demonstrating high levels of residential mobility, low-income black families are less likely than any other group to escape disadvantaged neighborhoods. These findings call for research to identify the mechanisms which work to channel families into unequal neighborhoods. Using in-depth interviews with 100 low-income African-American families residing in Mobile, AL and Baltimore, MD, we describe how the process of relocation works for the urban poor and how families engage in the process of neighborhood selection throughout their residential biographies. In a striking departure from traditional research on mobility, we find that most families do not choose to move at all, with more than 70 percent of all most recent moves being catalyzed by forces which induce immediate, often involuntary relocation. We show how this “reactive mobility” works to accelerate and hamper residential selection in ways that may reproduce neighborhood context. Where mobility happens voluntarily, we show how these choices are often made under circumstances which prohibit families from investigating their full range of residential options. We also show how parenting in the inner city and a lifetime of experience in violent communities sets expectations low for neighborhood quality, but high for housing unit characteristics.