Roles of Lending, Race, Ownership, and Neighborhood Changes in Rental Housing Rehabilitation

摘要

A study in Berkeley, Calif., finds that the availability of loans from commercial banks and savings and loans in a neighborhood has a substantial impact on rehabilitation decisions. For all landlords taken together, it is the lack of available loans, not discriminatory attitudes, which discourages otherwise profitable repairs in black neighborhoods. Loan availability is particularly important to owner - occupant landlords, who perhaps have fewer financial options. Many of these resident landlords are themselves black while others in neighborhoods with a high proportion of blacks have selected tenants on nondiscriminatory grounds. For nonresident landlords, discriminatory attitudes appear to be more important and loan availability less important in discouraging rehabilitation in black neighborhoods. Nonoccupant landlords also have greater interest in redeveloping their property, which serves as a disincentive to repair existing housing. Landlord rehabilitation decisions are not sensitive to past changes over time in neighborhood crime rates, racial composition, and density. Current conditions are more critical. These findings support strategies which make loans more available, especially to occupant landlords; which use code enforcement and other pressures on nonoccupant landlords; and which otherwise differentiate between occupant and nonoccupant owners. The study contains maps, statistical data, and references. (Author abstract modified).