IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v12y2019i1p123-d300899.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A National Study on Transportation Affordability of HUD Housing Assistance Programs

Author

Listed:
  • Jinat Jahan

    (College of Architecture, Planning and Public Affairs, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX 76019, USA)

  • Shima Hamidi

    (Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA)

Abstract

This national study is an effort to measure transportation costs and affordability for the major Housing and Urban Development (HUD) housing assistance programs since the transportation costs are the second largest expense of American households. This study estimates transportation costs for 76,000 address level properties from seven major HUD-designated affordable housing programs. Our transportation cost models are tailored for low-income households and account for built environmental determinants of travel, known as D variables, at the disaggregated level. We found that more than 44% of these properties in 326 U.S. metropolitan areas are unaffordable in terms of transportation costs. That could result in a waste of over $37.9 billion HUD spends annually to run these programs and subsidize housing for low-income families while some of these families spend substantial amount of their income on transportation. Our findings suggest that the provision of subsidized housing in mixed use, and transit-served neighborhoods would help low-income households to reduce their transportation costs even in auto-oriented sprawling regions. This study concludes with policy recommendations to local and federal governments and transit agencies on ways to incorporate transportation parameters to ensure true affordability for low-income residents of subsidized housing.

Suggested Citation

  • Jinat Jahan & Shima Hamidi, 2019. "A National Study on Transportation Affordability of HUD Housing Assistance Programs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-17, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2019:i:1:p:123-:d:300899
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/1/123/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/1/123/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John L. Renne & Tara Tolford & Shima Hamidi & Reid Ewing, 2016. "The Cost and Affordability Paradox of Transit-Oriented Development: A Comparison of Housing and Transportation Costs Across Transit-Oriented Development, Hybrid and Transit-Adjacent Development Statio," Housing Policy Debate, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(4-5), pages 819-834, September.
    2. Julia Koschinsky & Emily Talen, 2016. "Location Efficiency and Affordability: A National Analysis of Walkable Access and HUD-Assisted Housing," Housing Policy Debate, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(4-5), pages 835-863, September.
    3. Reid Ewing & Robert Cervero, 2010. "Travel and the Built Environment," Journal of the American Planning Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 76(3), pages 265-294.
    4. Ann M. Hartell, 2017. "Evaluating the Concept of Location Affordability: Recent Data on the Relationship Between Transportation, Housing, and Urban Form," Housing Policy Debate, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(3), pages 356-371, May.
    5. Lucas, Karen, 2012. "Transport and social exclusion: Where are we now?," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 20(C), pages 105-113.
    6. Jinhyun Hong & Qing Shen & Lei Zhang, 2014. "How do built-environment factors affect travel behavior? A spatial analysis at different geographic scales," Transportation, Springer, vol. 41(3), pages 419-440, May.
    7. Sebastian Galiani & Alvin Murphy & Juan Pantano, 2015. "Estimating Neighborhood Choice Models: Lessons from a Housing Assistance Experiment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(11), pages 3385-3415, November.
    8. Lang, Bree J., 2012. "Location incentives in the low-income housing tax credit: Are qualified census tracts necessary?," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 142-150.
    9. Shima Hamidi & Reid Ewing & John Renne, 2016. "How Affordable Is HUD Affordable Housing?," Housing Policy Debate, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(3), pages 437-455, May.
    10. Richard Funderburg & Heather MacDonald, 2010. "Neighbourhood Valuation Effects from New Construction of Low-income Housing Tax Credit Projects in Iowa: A Natural Experiment," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 47(8), pages 1745-1771, July.
    11. Arlie Adkins & Andrew Sanderford & Gary Pivo, 2017. "How Location Efficient Is LIHTC? Measuring and Explaining State-Level Achievement," Housing Policy Debate, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(3), pages 335-355, May.
    12. Erick Guerra & Mariel Kirschen, 2016. "Housing Plus Transportation Affordability Indices: Uses, Opportunities, and Challenges," International Transport Forum Discussion Papers 2016/14, OECD Publishing.
    13. Currie, Graham, 2010. "Quantifying spatial gaps in public transport supply based on social needs," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 31-41.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Guerra, Erick & Caudillo, Camilo & Goytia, Cynthia & Quiros, Tatiana Peralta & Rodriguez, Camila, 2018. "Residential location, urban form, and household transportation spending in Greater Buenos Aires," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 76-85.
    2. Allen, Jeff & Farber, Steven, 2020. "Suburbanization of transport poverty," SocArXiv hkpfj, Center for Open Science.
    3. Smith, Robert W. & Bertolaccini, Kelly & Lownes, Nicholas E., 2021. "Improving transit access measures in affordable housing funding criteria," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 239-248.
    4. Combs, Tabitha S., 2017. "Examining changes in travel patterns among lower wealth households after BRT investment in Bogotá, Colombia," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 11-20.
    5. Xiaoquan Wang & Chunfu Shao & Chaoying Yin & Chengxiang Zhuge & Wenjun Li, 2018. "Application of Bayesian Multilevel Models Using Small and Medium Size City in China: The Case of Changchun," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-15, February.
    6. Nicolas, Jean-Pierre & Pelé, Nicolas, 2018. "Reprint of Measuring trends in household expenditures for daily mobility. The case in Lyon, France, between 1995 and 2015," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 19-29.
    7. Lucas, Karen & Philips, Ian & Mulley, Corinne & Ma, Liang, 2018. "Is transport poverty socially or environmentally driven? Comparing the travel behaviours of two low-income populations living in central and peripheral locations in the same city," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 622-634.
    8. José Renato Barandier & Milena Bodmer & Izabella Lentino, 2017. "Evidence of the impacts of the national housing programme on the accessibility of the low‐income population in Rio de Janeiro," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 41(2), pages 105-118, May.
    9. Holz-Rau, Christian & Scheiner, Joachim, 2020. "Raum und Verkehr - ein Feld komplexer Wirkungsbeziehungen: Können Interventionen in die gebaute Umwelt klimawirksame Verkehrsemissionen wirklich senken?," Forschungsberichte der ARL: Aufsätze, in: Reutter, Ulrike & Holz-Rau, Christian & Albrecht, Janna & Hülz, Martina (ed.), Wechselwirkungen von Mobilität und Raumentwicklung im Kontext gesellschaftlichen Wandels, volume 14, pages 76-101, ARL – Akademie für Raumentwicklung in der Leibniz-Gemeinschaft.
    10. Bereitschaft, Bradley, 2020. "Gentrification and the evolution of commuting behavior within America's urban cores, 2000–2015," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    11. Hong, Jinhyun & Philip McArthur, David & Stewart, Joanna L., 2020. "Can providing safe cycling infrastructure encourage people to cycle more when it rains? The use of crowdsourced cycling data (Strava)," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 109-121.
    12. Xia, Jianhong(Cecilia) & Nesbitt, Joshua & Daley, Rebekah & Najnin, Arfanara & Litman, Todd & Tiwari, Surya Prasad, 2016. "A multi-dimensional view of transport-related social exclusion: A comparative study of Greater Perth and Sydney," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 205-221.
    13. Dong, Hongwei, 2021. "Evaluating the impacts of transit-oriented developments (TODs) on household transportation expenditures in California," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    14. Xiaoquan Wang & Weifeng Wang & Chaoying Yin, 2023. "Exploring the Relationships between Multilevel Built Environments and Commute Durations in Dual-Earner Households: Does Gender Matter?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(6), pages 1-17, March.
    15. Laviolette, Jérôme & Morency, Catherine & Waygood, E.O.D., 2022. "A kilometer or a mile? Does buffer size matter when it comes to car ownership?," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    16. Dong, Hongwei, 2017. "Rail-transit-induced gentrification and the affordability paradox of TOD," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 1-10.
    17. Guan, Xiaodong & Wang, Donggen, 2019. "Influences of the built environment on travel: A household-based perspective," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 710-724.
    18. Nicolas, Jean-Pierre & Pelé, Nicolas, 2017. "Measuring trends in household expenditures for daily mobility. The case in Lyon, France, between 1995 and 2015," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 82-92.
    19. Legrain, Alexander & Buliung, Ron & El-Geneidy, Ahmed M., 2016. "Travelling fair: Targeting equitable transit by understanding job location, sectorial concentration, and transit use among low-wage workers," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 1-11.
    20. Phani Kumar, P. & Ravi Sekhar, Ch. & Parida, Manoranjan, 2018. "Residential dissonance in TOD neighborhoods," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 166-177.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2019:i:1:p:123-:d:300899. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.