“U.S. Government’s Efforts on Urban Policies and the Need for Change towards Sustainability”
The Need for Urban Policy Change
Introduction
One of the aspects that show regional growth is the development of the cities in that region. Often, People relocate to areas that have adequate resources that can support their growth and development. Governments should create policies that allow equitable use of these resources by the people. Urban policy is a framework and systematic activity either by the government or its chosen agency towards cities’ development. Therefore, urban policies determine how people live in the cities and interact with one another (García, 2019). Urban policies focus on the roles of the cities in socio-economic growth. This paper explains the urban policy problem, especially the socio-economic challenges experienced because of the public housing and transportation issues. While the government has several programs and policies to handle challenges facing the city dwellers, changes in these regulations can highly eradicate urban challenges.
In the early 1900s, U.S cities registered swift growth. During this time, the U.S realized a high industrial growth rate that influenced population movement towards particular regions. The latter contributed significantly to different cities. Between 1880 and 1900, the urban population increased with an excess of 15 million persons. According to Kang (2019), immigrants into the country significantly contributed to the population growth in the urban areas. Besides, a considerable number of people transferred from the American rural areas from the early 1880s to the beginning of the 20th century. About 40% of the U.S towns declined their population mainly due to the influx of migrants.
Industrial expansion and population growth significantly change the face of the United States towns. This growth created various social challenges in towns, including traffic congestion, sanitation issues, slum developments, air pollution and noise (Hoekstra, Hochstenbach, Bontje & Musterd, 2018). Also, mass movements involving cable cars, subways and trolleys as well as skylines and skyscrapers increased in towns. This expansion of the town influenced the development of suburbs. Residents from the neighborhoods to towns increased the movements in proportion to their numbers. Notably, the majority of urban dwellers live in apartments and rental houses. As such, people residing in the suburbs and particularly the immigrants were at the center of public life.
Many immigrants continued with precious customs and practices while in their neighborhoods (Hoekstra, Hochstenbach, Bontje & Musterd, 2018). In the modern U.S setting, many suburbs clearly show these ethnic practices. Although many people embraced industrialization, communities started to experience challenges influenced by increased population and poor infrastructure. Most significantly, U.S metropolitan areas encouraged special association between the dwellers while introducing multiethnic and multicultural society of the modern United States.
Notably, urban policy is a considerable societal issue because it influences how individuals coexist in the cities. Therefore, legislators must develop policies that address various urban concerns, including housing, public transport and sanitation among other public concerns (García, 2019). Actually, these are the fundamental ethical concerns that emphasize the importance of urban policy in all the urban areas in the United States.
Statement of the problem
The impacts of the U.S-urban-areas development patterns continue to be blurred and thus controversial. Although these patterns resemble but different from those of other nations, a U.S Accounting officer’s report depicts that the government’s urban development impact remains unclear. Nonetheless, this report and observations by various urban development observers show that the government’s policies usually impact on loan supplies, housing and transportation costs. Although the current urban policies endeavor to handle urban population challenges, they develop new concerns, including high levels of unemployment, housing and transportation concerns as well as increased health issues.
For some decades, housing comes out as the most challenging concern among other urban areas’ challenges. In their research, Harvard researchers established that more than 40% of the city dwellers spend more than one-third of their gross income to pay house rent (Kang, 2019). Therefore, a significant population of city dwellers struggle to meet basic needs. Although housing is a big challenge in urban areas, it hits low-income earners the worst. Besides, the research indicated that in excess of 60% people in towns cannot afford to pay house mortgages and thus, they continue to rent houses.
It is thus clear that population increase across the United States is one of the primary causes of the current housing challenge. Although immigration significantly influences population growth, rural-urban migration also increases the population in the U.S cities. Unemployment is another factor that influences the housing challenge. Despite the government’s efforts to reduce unemployment rates are still high in the United States. Unemployment introduces the conversation concerning the effects of affordable housing programs and crime rates as well as the desire for change in policy.
Current policies
Notably, most of the U.S local governments are endeavoring to address housing among other urban challenges. Besides, the federal government is developing a number of programs and policies to handle different problems affecting the lives of the city dwellers. Even though the affordable housing policy somewhat addressed the challenge at the beginning, most of the people in towns argue that the policy works well for the landlords. Some of the current policies include Affordable housing policy, Transportation policy, housing tax treatment, The Neighborhood Revitalization program and housing, monetary and housing finance policy.
Affordable housing policy
This program helps to deal with the housing issue experienced by the urban dwellers. According to the National Low-Income Housing Coalition, approximately 50% of the city dwellers are cost-burdened, especially concerning the rent. The coalition asserts that the entire population of employees earning the minimum wage can afford a two-bedroom house only if they extend working hours to at least forty hours each week (Amato, Maimone, Martellozzo, Nolè & Murgante, 2016). Therefore, many workers struggle to meet this number of working hours to ensure their families are housed. Although wage-growth remains low, rent-growth is significantly increasing. The latter is a clear indicator that people in towns will continue to spend a significant percentage of their income to pay rents.
As such, the government creates the housing program to support city dwellers while reducing housing expenditure. Housing policy endeavors to give solutions to the housing challenge by helping individuals to not only get affordable houses but also help employees to control their income. The diagram below illustrates the change percentages in wages, median rents and the cost-burdened people from 1960 to 2015.
Transportation policy
The federal government has a clear role in urban development through transport policies and programs. Nonetheless, the influence levels of the government is arguable. Of importance, the federal government is the central designer and a stakeholder in the making of every highway that connects a state with another in addition to other foremost routes (Silverman, 2016). In light of this, government authorities are fundamental stakeholders and proponents of transport policies. “Highways help urban residents to traverse from one point to another.” Studies reveal that highways promote the creation of neighborhoods and hence many people move to these neighborhoods. Also, the establishment of highways enhances traffic in towns because of the reduced number of people living in the cities (Amato, F., Maimone, Martellozzo, Nolè & Murgante, 2016). It is apparent that while people living in the cities, they need very little movement.
The housing tax treatment
The treatment of mortgage interest decline and capital gains on housing, as highlighted in the federal tax codes, is the core factor contributing to the government’s influence on urban growth. The latter has the potential to reduce or increase urban growth. Of importance, urban policy can swiftly reduce housing charges while increasing the use of houses within the cities.
The SC2 (Strong Communities, Strong Cities) initiative
The federal government introduced this program in 2012 to allow cities with various challenges to achieve the laid down development objectives (Silverman, 2016). Notably, SC2 controls the government’s programs and investments to hasten economic development in all urban areas to allow economic empowerment among different communities.
The Neighborhood Revitalization program
The government introduced this initiative in 2007 as a strategy to support individuals living in cities and the neighborhoods towards poverty eradication. The initiative develops the suburbs with high poverty levels into opportunity areas (Derickson, 2017). Apparently, this strategy is a cross-departmental policy involving the “white house, DOE, Department of Justice, HUD, Treasury and HHS.” The objective of this program is to improve other federal urban policies such as the “Community Health Center, Choice Neighborhoods and Promise Zones among others” (Hananel, Krefetz & Vatury, 2018). As such, the program maximizes the power of metropolis by empowering the city dwellers.
Promise-Zones policy
This initiative identifies ethnic communities and poor urban zones that should get private and public financing to leverage investments, create employment and enhance education for economic growth and crime reduction. Arguably, the U.S government provides financial support and subsidies on various historic initiatives such as the tenant-based rental support and the low-income housing tax credits. The below diagram shows the current federal budget on housing initiatives.
Partnership for Sustainable Communities
The primary aim of this initiative is to enhance collaboration of different federal departments such as the Department of Housing Urban Development, Environmental Protection Agency and Department of transportation among other departments for the development of affordable and equitable housing, and economic growth (Hananel, Krefetz & Vatury, 2018). As such, this policy helps to increase flexibility, accountability and integration in municipal initiatives. As earlier mentioned, the existing housing policies are ineffective in terms of addressing city challenges. As shown in the above figure, the rate of median rent is greater than that of the median wage. In light of this, the inefficiency of the existing urban policies introduces new concerns such as substance abuse and other forms of crime in towns.
Alternative solutions
As earlier highlighted, the current urban policies partly address urban challenges but introduces new problems. It is thus significant to develop effective urban policies that can adequately handle urban challenges. Below are two alternatives policies that can eradicate urban challenges.
Integrated planning for sustainable urban infrastructure
The proponents of this policy, including the Baltimore’s Mayor, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, assert that the development of different policies is grounded on assumptions. On the contrary, the existing opinion must be substituted with a maintainable opinion that factors socio-economic, ecological and political issues (Amato, Maimone, Martellozzo, Nolè & Murgante, 2016). This policy provides that sustainable urban development is only achievable based on an extensive evaluation of impacts from the decisions. This proposal provides an array of benefits, such as sufficient public participation that permits the collection of adequate information and data. Therefore, this program can offer the solution to the existing and perhaps future transportation and housing issues since the policy combines different stakeholders and components.
Housing, monetary and housing finance policy
This policy was introduced in 2007 to enhance the affordable housing initiative by augmenting various sources and the housing finance implementation. This policy encourages people to develop cultures of saving for mortgage while in apartments or rental houses (Kang, 2019). Besides, the policy assists the “city dwellers through government programs to continually safe for the future.” Further, this strategy encourages the federal government to shrink the costs of construction materials. Although this policy can significantly improve the situation in the cities, it has not been affected due to the country’s politics.
Policy recommendations / Action plan
The above discussion demonstrates that transportation, land use and housing are some of the crucial concerns of the city residents. Although the government has previously developed initiatives and policies to eradicate housing challenges in the cities, it should factor the following recommendations. Notably, continued immigration and population increase partly contribute to the failure of the existing policies.
Firstly, the government should add particular resources towards outreach processes for encouraging community participation. Besides, the government can give priority to affordable housing while implementing mitigation strategies against displacements (Hananel, Krefetz & Vatury, 2018). Displacements can occur because of unemployment and thus, the development of programs that can increase employment opportunities is desirable.
The government can establish non-profit-owned cheaper houses as another strategy to address housing challenges. Although this program can be expensive, it can significantly relieve the tenants (Derickson, 2017). Also, the government can use varied strategies such as effective use of land trust, preservation of publicly-assisted cheaper houses and leveraging on market-rate developments. Of importance, the government may introduce a community-based housing initiative towards incorporating the community in ensuring affordable houses.
- Summation and conclusion
This research establishes that housing concerns introduce other challenges to the city dwellers. For example, most of the people with low income residing in towns struggle to provide basic needs, education and health care to the dependents. Because many people consume much of their income on recurrent expenditure, they can hardly retain some income for the future or emergencies. In light of this, it is very hard for low-income earners to have plans of owning a house.
Although the existing urban policies do not handle the long-experienced urban concerns, policymakers should factor an integrated plan strategy that involves the community and other players for a sustainable solution. Usually, the government influences urban development patterns in many ways, including construction subsidies, tax treatment and through highways construction. Nonetheless, the process of urban planning has never realized the demands of the people in urban areas. As such, the current initiatives provide solutions while introducing other challenges. This research establishes that increased population growth highly contributes to the demand for employment and housing in the cities.
References
Amato, F., Maimone, B. A., Martellozzo, F., Nolè, G., & Murgante, B. (2016). The effects of urban policies on the development of urban areas. Sustainability, 8(4), 297.
Derickson, K. D. (2017). Urban geography II: Urban geography in the Age of Ferguson. Progress in Human Geography, 41(2), 230-244.
García, I. (2019). Human Ecology and Its Influence in Urban Theory and Housing Policy in the United States. Urban Science, 3(2), 56.
Hananel, R., Krefetz, S. P., & Vatury, A. (2018). Public Housing Matters: Public Housing Policy in Sweden, the United States, and Israel. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 0739456X18793702.
Hoekstra, M. S., Hochstenbach, C., Bontje, M. A., & Musterd, S. (2018). Shrinkage and housing inequality: Policy responses to population decline and class change. Journal of Urban Affairs, 1-18.
Kang, S. (2019). Beyond households: regional determinants of housing instability among low-income renters in the United States. Housing Studies, 1-30.
Silverman, R. M. (2016). Urban policy without broaching the topic of race, really? Response to david imbroscio’s “Urban Policy as Meritocracy: A Critique”. Journal of Urban Affairs, 38(1), 105-109.