New Updates on The Edge

Message from PD&R Leadership:
Spotlight on the 2015 American Housing Survey
HUD recently released the 2015 American Housing Survey (AHS), a biennial survey conducted since 1981 that provides crucial information about communities across the country. Shawn Bucholtz, Director of PD&R’s Housing and Demographic Analysis Division, discusses the 2015 redesign of the AHS, which introduced an integrated national sample, redesigned the survey questions, and added topical questions concerning a range of subjects including food security, housing counseling, arts and culture, and housing health and safety.

Research:
Findings of a Pilot Study of Discrimination Against Families with Children in Rental Housing Markets
The HUD report Discrimination Against Families with Children in Rental Housing Markets: Findings of the Pilot Study represents an initial inquiry into the experiences of families with children during the search for rental units. The pilot study, which compared households with and without children in three metropolitan areas, found that families with children are shown fewer, larger units than households consisting of adults only. A companion report, Future Directions for Research on Discrimination Against Families with Children in Rental Housing Markets, provides a detailed discussion of the research model and its implications for future studies.

In Practice:
Shreveport Ridge Addresses the Need for Workforce Housing in a High-Cost Virginia County
In 2014, the Windy Hill Foundation opened Shreveport Ridge, a $22 million affordable workforce housing development in Loudon County, Virginia. Its 98 units are available to low-income households, and more than half are occupied by service industry workers between 19 and 35 years of age. The development of Shreveport Ridge provides insight into the cost-saving potential of environmental design features and the intricacies of navigating local regulatory barriers to affordable housing.

Please send your comments and suggestions to editor@huduser.gov.