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Middle-income Housing Programmes in American Cities

David Varady is in the School of Planning, College of Design, Art, Architecture and Planning, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, 45221-0073, USA

There is increasing consensus among policy-makers and scholars that in order to ensure the social, economic and political viability of American central cities it will be necessary to address middle-income as well as low-income housing needs. The popularity of equity planning—with its focus on the most needy-implies, however, that these programmes would be so controversial that politicians would be reluctant to implement them. Case-studies of seven North American cities (Baltimore, Cleveland, Montreal, New York, St Louis, St Paul and Wilmington) failed to support this hypothesis. Middle-income housing programmes have developed a strong constituency among community leaders and minority politicians who see these programmes playing an important role in neighbourhood revitalisation efforts. Although tax abatements and below market-rate mortgages are not reversing patterns of central-city decline, they are achieving more modest objectives such as encouraging banks to provide more loans in inner-city areas. The future expansion of these programmes will be dependent on changes at the federal level. At present, federal housing regulations and taxation policies hurt these efforts. For academics to play a more significant role in the development of these programmes, they will need to go beyond equity planning and recognise the need for a more comprehensive regeneration strategy including the maintenance of a solid middle-income population base.

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