Dear friend,

Welcome to Frontier, the monthly newsletter from the Future of Land and Housing Program at New America. 

🔊 We're excited to welcome Emma Maniere to our team as a communications intern!

Here's what we've been up to:

What We're Doing

Event Recap—Frontiers: Innovative Approaches for Women's Land Rights

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development recognizes women's land rights as critical for achieving goals related to ending poverty and promoting gender equality. However, with seven years left in the Agenda, there's still a significant need to promote gender-sensitive tenure security and equal land ownership for women.

An effective strategy to close this gap, deliver land documentation, and expand women's land rights is to leverage participatory approaches and cost-effective technologies such as USAID's Mapping Approaches to Secure Tenure (MAST). 

Yesterday, FLH and USAID hosted the second event of our year-long Frontiers series, exploring the gender-related outcomes and lessons learned from a decade of land documentation work in Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, and Tanzania.

Not able to join us online? A recording of the event is available here.

Accessing FHA Mortgage Loans in North Carolina

Amidst a housing market characterized by skyrocketing prices, an undersupply of homes, and a rise in cash purchases, loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) should be more important than ever. FHA mortgage loans were designed to increase access to financing for buyers who not only lack the necessary wealth to purchase a home, but are also traditionally underserved by credit markets, notably first-time and low-and-moderate income homebuyers. 

And yet, Sabiha Zainulbhai and Zach Blizard, Data Analytics and Research Manager for the Center for the Study of Economic Mobility (CSEM), find that in North Carolina FHA lending has declined over the last 15 years, particularly for loans under $100,000. That’s because banks are withdrawing from the FHA market.

Read here for Sabiha and Zach’s analysis and discussion of the implications, and check out the highlights in this Twitter thread.

A Year After the Surfside Collapse, Florida’s Condo Safety Act Impacts Housing Affordability

The 2021 Surfside condominium collapse has increased scrutiny of Florida's 1.5 million condos. Many of these homes are aging, and a loose regulatory environment has allowed for the deferment of maintenance and repairs for decades. 

In response to growing concerns, the Florida state legislature passed new safety requirements for condominiums last May. The law requires an inspection for structural integrity every decade for older buildings, and that condo associations follow up with any necessary fixes in a timely manner. But while such repairs are critical, they're also incredibly expensive, leading to worry about costs for condo owners.

In her latest post for the FLH Blog, fellow Dona Stewart explores the implications of the Florida Condo Safety Act, notably its impact on housing affordability in the Sunshine State.

You can read the piece here. 

What We're Reading

FLH staff share what has stood out to them lately on land, housing, and property rights in the U.S. and internationally.

Dona Stewart

Coastal Defense Megaprojects in an Era of Sea-Level Rise: Politically Feasible Strategies or Army Corps Fantasies?: Protecting American coastal communities from sea-level rise, increased storm intensity, and other climate impacts requires storm surge barriers, levees, and other coastal flood defenses. But such megaprojects often exceed $500 million and are politically difficult to execute. With the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) currently proposing storm surge barriers and levees for several major cities, including Norfolk, Miami, and Houston, this article investigates why many such projects fail to move forward. Their findings highlight the need for continuous and deep engagement between USACE and the public, NGOs, and elected officials. Because resistance to these projects often stems from environmental concerns, transparency on potential impact is also key. And today, USACE is required to consider cheaper and faster project alternatives (that possibly offer less protection), including restoration of wetlands, dunes, and shorelines, decreasing the chance that storm surge barriers will be politically feasible adaptation options in the near future.

Sabiha Zainulbhai

Washed Away: How Disaster Relief Leaves Kentucky’s Landslide Victims Behind: In this series of illustrations co-published by the Economic Hardship Reporting Project and Grist, Austyn Gaffney and Martha Park detail how climate change-induced landslides impact one Kentucky family, and how federal grants, loans, and insurance have repeatedly failed to provide adequate relief. For this family, and countless others impacted by climate change-related disasters, this powerful story makes clear the various systems that contribute to families falling through the cracks of disaster aid, and highlights the need for a major overhaul of how we think about climate risk, housing loss, and ensuring security for the future. 

Tim Robustelli

'It's legal, there's just no precedent': the first US town to demand a rent decrease: Kingston, New York, a small Hudson Valley town, is experiencing a huge surge in rents. An influx of wealthy homebuyers, the purchase of local apartment complexes by profit-driven developers, and the transition of other housing stock into Airbnbs are all raising costs and pushing long-time tenants to the financial edge. Far from powerless, however, renters organized to help pass an unprecedented local law: the first-ever rent reduction in the United States. But, unsurprisingly, Kingston’s landlords sued to stop the ordinance, arguing in part that less rent means less investment back into properties. The case is currently winding its way through the legal system, and whatever happens in Upstate New York is likely to send a strong message to the rest of the U.S. on landlord-tenant relations, rental markets, and local housing policy.

Thoughts on our work or where we're headed? Reach out to us at FLH@NewAmerica.org or tag us at @FLHatNewAmerica.

Until next month, the FLH Team.

About New America

New America is dedicated to renewing the promise of America, bringing us closer to our nation’s highest ideals. We’re a different kind of think tank: one dedicated to public problem solving. Our team of visionary researchers, changemakers, technologists, and storytellers study and seize the opportunities presented by dramatic social and technological change. We search for powerful ideas, wherever they are, and collaborate with civic innovators around the world to develop evidence-based solutions.

The Future of Land and Housing Program at New America aims to help solve today’s land and housing rights challenges, both in the United States and internationally. Through our research and writing, convening, and collaboration with civic innovators worldwide, we strive to connect new constituencies, shed light on underreported issues, and implement creative approaches in the property rights space.

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