Stoll on Housing Vouchers, Race and Discrimination

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Michael Stoll, professor of public policy and urban planning, spoke to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on his research posing the question, “Do Black voucher recipients’ moves to the suburbs increase crime rates?” The answer to this question, according to his study, is no. Using federal data for the nation’s 100 largest metropolitan areas, Stoll analyzed the impact that Housing Choice Voucher recipients had on majority-white suburbs. The research determined that non-white voucher holders moving into white suburbs did not cause crime rates to increase. However, the mere perception that lower-income residents will have a negative impact on an affluent neighborhood can have real consequences. “It can influence neighbors’ resistance to landlords’ willingness to rent,” Stoll said. He called for more enforcement of housing fairness laws to ensure that voucher holders are not forced into lower-income and racially segregated neighborhoods due to discrimination from landlords.

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Turner’s Research Helps Oasis Residents Battle the Heat

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V. Kelly Turner, co-director of the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation, spoke to the Desert Sun about her research on shade scarcity in Oasis, California. Because Oasis does not have tall buildings or trees, it has larger shade deserts than other communities. The study looked into how heat changes were affecting residents of Oasis and possible solutions to alleviate this struggle. For example, temporary shade structures were created at bus stops to provide people with places to sit that are protected from the heat. Building this kind of shelter could also encourage ridership on buses. Turner said amenities such as the shaded bus shelters help address the heat burden for people who are unable to reside in air-conditioned settings. “Every city needs to be planning for shade and probably planning for more of it, given what we’re anticipating with climate change,” she said.

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Manville on Bay Area’s Housing Dilemma

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Michael Manville, associate professor of urban planning, spoke to Courthouse News about the current housing crisis in the Bay Area. Affordable housing for middle- and low-income families is scarce, especially in the East Bay, in part because investors are outbidding traditional homeowners to buy multiple single-family homes. In addition, cities are simply are not building enough housing to meet demand. Manville commented on the city of Berkeley’s report on housing, saying, “Institutional investors like to buy in the Bay Area because the Bay Area doesn’t build housing. These companies feed off scarcity.” He added, “Berkeley needs more housing. The main way to keep it affordable is to build new housing so rich people don’t buy it up.”

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Torres-Gil Urges a New Outlook on Retirement

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Fernando Torres-Gil, professor of social welfare and public policy, co-wrote an opinion piece for the Abilene Reporter News advising people to consider the future impact of a growing population of retired Americans. As life spans have increased, retirement from work has become more common. Yet a robust labor force is needed to ensure that the U.S. Social Security program remains solvent, particularly given data about the kind of care that older Americans will require. “More than 9 million Americans across the nation will need dementia care by 2030, and nearly 12 million by 2040,” wrote Torres-Gil and co-author Jacqueline L. Angel. To combat the financial stressors that this growing population demographic places on government, some lawmakers are proposing increasing the retirement age to 70 or increasing the eligibility age for access to Medicare. This would create hardship for many, Torres-Gil said, stressing the importance of a sustainable safety net to provide stability for those in their later years of life.

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Astor on Strategies for Deterring Gun Violence

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Ron Avi Astor, professor of social welfare, spoke to the Seattle Times about the rise in gun violence across the country and the recent fatal school shooting in Seattle. “In almost every category of school safety, things have gotten better, except for the school shootings,” Astor said. Astor and a group of experts created an eight-point plan to reduce gun violence that recommended that schools steer away from hefty and unnecessary spending and instead focus on community building and climate and culture evaluation. “Twenty-five years ago it was in the millions, and now it’s in the billions and billions and billions of dollars,” Astor said, referring to local and federal spending on K-12 school safety and security. He said it is essential that schools implement strategies rooted in a clear vision for reducing gun violence, one that promotes school safety without hardening schools, increasing budgets and harming students.

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Yaroslavsky on New Faces at L.A. City Hall

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Zev Yaroslavsky, director of the Los Angeles Initiative at UCLA Luskin, spoke to LAist about recent upheaval in local government. In the 15-person L.A. City Council, one member has been suspended, two were defeated in reelection bids, two others left to run for other offices, and one resigned amid the scandal over a leaked recording of a racist conversation. As a result, several new faces will join the council, including a community activist, a labor organizer and six women — the most the council has ever had. Yaroslavsky, who served on the City Council and county Board of Supervisors for decades, praised the range of life backgrounds brought by the newcomers. “It is not good for the City Council to be a homogenous entity where everybody has the same career and life experiences,” Yaroslavsky said. “That’s not been healthy. And I think it’s part of the reason that there’s a malaise in City Hall.”

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Brozen on Effectiveness of Transit Ambassadors

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Madeline Brozen, deputy director of the UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies, was cited in a Curbed article about improving safety on subways and LA Metro lines by employing transit ambassadors. These ambassadors serve to create a safer environment and help commuters with questions and directions. Metro’s 2022 customer experience survey showed that a large number of commuters were people of color and lower income whose greatest concern was reliable service and a feeling of safety. Reports of racial profiling by Metro police had contributed to negative experiences. “Researchers found that poorly guarded or empty areas on the train and platform contributed to not feeling safe riding the train at night,” Brozen said. The ambassador program aims to create a more welcoming environment throughout the Metro system, and could open doors to more safety initiatives in the future. “The public realm needs more people looking out for other people,” Brozen said. 

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Yin on Strategies to Reduce Medical Debt

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Wesley Yin, associate professor of public policy and management, spoke to the podcast Tradeoffs about how Americans can reduce their medical debt. Currently, about 100 million Americans have amassed more than $140 billion in medical debt. Yin explained that simply forgiving a person’s medical bills is a short-term solution to the greater problem of accumulating medical debt. When a hospital erases debt and temporarily reduces service costs, patients became more likely to receive care; however, within six months, they are likely to go back to getting less care as their debt again piles up, a study by Yin has found. Yin and his colleagues also published a paper in JAMA showing that states with Medicaid had far less medical debt than those without it. “In the states that expanded Medicaid, the amount of debt basically was halved. And in places that didn’t, it was essentially unchanged,” he told the podcast in a segment beginning at minute 10.

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Pierce on End to Water, Power Shutoffs for Low-Income Angelenos

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A Los Angeles Times story on the decision by local utility officials to halt shutoffs of water and power for low-income customers who can’t pay their bills cited Gregory Pierce, co-director of the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation. The story cited research from the center showing that Los Angeles’ communities of color were disproportionately affected by utility debt and shutoffs during the COVID-19 pandemic. “Protection from utility shutoffs for those enrolled in low-income discount programs will help lessen the debt burden for [L.A. Department of Water and Power’s] most vulnerable customers,” said Pierce, who leads UCLA’s Human Right to Water Solutions Lab. Pierce comments frequently on issues of water access and equity, including in a USA Today fact-checking article on false claims that water scarcity is an illusion. Climate change has created weather extremes, he said, but excess water in one place doesn’t help another place that’s parched by drought.

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Kaplan on High Rate of Suicide Among White Men

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Mark Kaplan, professor of social welfare, spoke to KERA News about alarmingly high rates of suicide from gun violence in North Texas cities. Over half of the suicides reported in Collin Country, Tarrant County and Dallas County involved a gun. While white men make up about 20% of Collin County’s population, they accounted for 70% of suicides. Kaplan, who researches suicide risk, said men have a higher likelihood of dying by suicide than women. Major life events can serve as a catalyst for a person to commit suicide, he said. Often, suicides are not planned but are the culmination of stressful events paired with mental health issues, leading to a “death of despair.” “The presence of a gun, either in a household or lots of guns in the community, increases the likelihood of a gun death, either homicide, suicide or unintentional,” Kaplan said.

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