Federal Tools to Create Places of Opportunity for All

Federal Tools to Create Places of Opportunity for All. Urban Institute. Margery Austin et al. October 15, 2020

The Opportunity for All series offers bold ideas for federal action to reverse the legacy of segregation and disinvestment in communities of color and ensure that every family can live in a neighborhood that supports their well-being and their children’s ability to thrive. But progress on these and other promising ideas could inadvertently be undermined by other federal policy choices that fail to consider place, race, and access to opportunity. Therefore, this essay advances three overarching tools to expand access to opportunity through federal policies and investments while leveraging local and state innovation: 1) vigorously enforce the long-neglected statutory mandate to affirmatively further fair housing; 2) implement a place-conscious equity review process for all major discretionary spending and new federal policies; and 3) launch a “race-to-the-top” competition that rewards the boldest regional and state equitable development strategies. [Note: contains copyrighted material].

[PDF format, 18 pages].

Leveraging the Built Environment for Health Equity

Leveraging the Built Environment for Health Equity. Urban Institute. Martha Fedorowicz et al. July 14, 2020

This research project seeks to identify changes to the built environment that small and medium-size cities can make to promote health and health equity. We focus specifically on small and medium-size cities—that is, cities whose populations are less than 250,000—because little research explores how small and medium-size cities are implementing policies, plans, programs, project, and pilots to address the health inequities in their communities. Based on a literature scan, we identified six built environment domains that are connected to community health and cover common policy and practitioner fields:

• Safe, healthy, and affordable housing
• Active living assets and facilities
• Regional and local infrastructure
• Food security, health, and nutrition
• Vacant property reclamation and urban greening
• Neighborhood and community design

Through our research scan and analysis under each domain, we selected 10 interventions across different dimensions of the built environment that could affect health and health equity. In this report, we present the research evidence for the interventions’ effectiveness and examples of their application in small and medium-size cities. In addition to presenting these interventions, we share 13 promising practices for small and medium-size cities that are focused on how to apply a health equity lens to built environment interventions and how to overcome implementation challenges. Accompanying the paper is a file that contains demographic, economic, and health data on the 72 small and medium-size cities that our quantitative analysis considered. [Note: contains copyrighted material].

[PDF format, 106 pages].

An Early Assessment of Opportunity Zones for Equitable Development Projects

An Early Assessment of Opportunity Zones for Equitable Development Projects: Nine Observations on the Use of the Incentive to Date. Urban Institute. Brett Theodos et al. June 17, 2020

Opportunity Zones (OZs) are gaining momentum, and now that the rules regulating them are clearer, investors, local officials, developers, and businesses have been engaging with the incentive. In the two years since the Tax Cut and Jobs Act of 2017 created the incentive and Treasury-designated Zones, hundreds of Qualified Opportunity Funds (QOFs) have been created, and OZ investment was beginning to flow until the COVID-19 crisis began. But has this capital been reaching projects that benefit low- and moderate-income households and communities? Although the program is still maturing, and the COVID-19 crisis now poses new challenges whose resolution is unknown, this report offers an early, qualitative assessment of how well OZs have channeled capital into projects aligned with equitable development goals. [Note: contains copyrighted material].

[PDF format, 52 pages].

Technology and Equity in Cities

Technology and Equity in Cities. Urban Institute. Solomon Greene et al. November 21, 2019

Racial and economic inequities in the US are growing, and rapid technological change can either promote inclusion or widen this divide. City leaders can use technological innovations to manage infrastructure and improve services, communicate with constituents, and make better decisions. But they must also be aware of the challenges that come with the disruptive force of new technological advancements. This report, which is based on a literature review and interviews with experts, explores trends in four areas of technological change: smart infrastructure, shared mobility, civic technology, and technology-enhanced data analytics. The authors identify how those trends could exacerbate or mitigate inequality in cities, and we provide examples of cities that are leveraging these trends and innovations to advance equity goals. They also synthesize cross-cutting themes and recommend principles to guide local efforts to harness technological innovation and create more equitable cities. [Note: contains copyrighted material].

[PDF format, 70 pages].

Americans See Advantages and Challenges in Country’s Growing Racial and Ethnic Diversity

Americans See Advantages and Challenges in Country’s Growing Racial and Ethnic Diversity. Pew Research Center. Juliana Menasce Horowitz. May 8, 2019

Most value workplace diversity, but few want employers to consider race or ethnicity in hiring and promotion decisions

As the United States becomes more racially and ethnically diverse, and as companies from Wall Street to Silicon Valley grapple with how to build workforces that reflect these changing demographics, Americans have a complicated, even contradictory, set of views about the impact of diversity and the best way to achieve it. Most say it’s a good thing that the country has a diverse population, but many also say this introduces its own set of challenges. And while a majority values workplace diversity, few endorse the idea of taking race or ethnicity into consideration in hiring and promotions, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. [Note: contains copyrighted material].

[PDF format, 20 pages].

The Well-Being and Basic Needs Survey: A New Data Source for Monitoring the Health and Well-Being of Individuals and Families

The Well-Being and Basic Needs Survey: A New Data Source for Monitoring the Health and Well-Being of Individuals and Families. Urban Institute. Michael Karpman, Stephen Zuckerman, Dulce Gonzalez. August 28, 2018

 In December 2017, the Urban Institute launched the Well-Being and Basic Needs Survey (WBNS) to monitor changes in individual and family health and well-being at a time when policymakers seek significant changes to programs that help low-income families pay for food, health care, housing, and other basic needs. The new annual survey is a key component of the Institute’s From Safety Net to Solid Ground project supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and other foundations.

This report describes the design and content of the WBNS. To assess the capacity of the WBNS to produce nationally representative estimates for the nonelderly adult population, we also report findings from a benchmarking analysis in which we compare estimates from the WBNS with estimates from established federal surveys. We find that, despite some discrepancies, most indicators based on data from the WBNS are reasonably consistent with measures from larger federal surveys, suggesting the WBNS data will serve as a credible source of information for analyses of health and well-being within the Safety Net to Solid Ground project. [Note: contains copyrighted material].

 [PDF format, 23 pages].