REVITALIZING MEMPHISHousing and Economic Development Policies
Dee-Dee Huang
(sponsored by Community LIFT and Princeton Internships in Civic Service)
Outline
• Acknowledgements
Memphis
Assets • Cultural and economic rebirth in the past few years • Historically and culturally rich- Great food! • Low cost of living
Barriers • Flight to the suburbs = population decrease in inner core • Plagued with crime, poverty, blight, poor roads • Tensions between urban and suburban, black and white
Introduction- Memphis
Gentrification- What is it?
Quick and simple: when lower-income areas experience “significant growth in home values and educational attainment”
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50,000
100,000
150,000
200,000
250,000
2000 2016
Introduction- Gentrification
Gentrification & Memphis
• Nascent Gentrification
• Is it currently happening in Memphis? • Only ~8.8% of census tracts are gentrifying
• Examples: Downtown near the Civil Rights Museum
• Potential hotspots for future gentrification
Introduction- Gentrification
Soulsville Westwood
Uptown Medical District
• Displacement
• Who gets displaced? • Renters
• Home-owners, especially the elderly
• Why should we start thinking about anti- displacement measures in Memphis now?
• Issues other than displacement
Two ”wrong” approaches to gentrification • Let the market regulate itself, displacement is natural • Discourage any outside investment in fear of gentrification
1. Attract caring corporations and investors into the community that will adopt equity policies (hardest step!)
2. Adopt affordable housing policies that compliments development
3. Encourage community leaders to embrace technology to help those without technological access
4. Focus on smaller, but more frequent investments
Recommendations-General
My recommendations fit into two general categories:
1. Increase neighborhood income and empowerment • Bottom-up community building • Inform residents of existing opportunities • Entrepreneurship and job creation • Neighborhood databases
2. Institute equitable development policies • Educate and notify residents on existing policies that relieve financial burdens • Maintain affordable housing in the face of new development
Recommendations- Specific
Future • Neighborhood Database in areas • Network of Neighborhood Associations
1. Neighborhood Empowerment
• Series of requirements that must be met
• Small business, potential for success, proof of social and economic disadvantage, etc.
Advance Memphis
• Local non-profit
• Provides various programs to promote economic development in a specific struggling area
• Entrepreneurship program helps increase neighborhood self-sufficiency
1. Neighborhood Empowerment
Proposal: Neighborhood Database
What does this have to do with limiting displacement? • Importance of technology
• Networking tool to enable access to residents
• Extensive databases in targeted areas Soulsville has an existing neighborhood database
• What information will it contain? Who will have access?
• Created by community leaders preferably the Neighborhood Association
1. Neighborhood Empowerment
• Could either just be for distressed neighborhoods or for all
• Monthly meetings for community leaders
• Could be organized through an outside non-profit or a particularly strong neighborhood association
Benefits • Creates a space where leaders can talk about issues, possible solutions, etc. and share ideas
• Already established associations can guide newer associations
• Extends sense of support throughout all of Memphis
1. Neighborhood Empowerment
2. Equitable Development Policies
Existing • Senior Property Tax Freezes (Trustee’s Office) • Earned Income Tax Credits (EITC) • Section 3
Future • Tax-Increment Financing (TIF) Districts (Commercial) • Community Benefits Agreements (CBAs) (Residential) • Housing “rainy-day” fund in targeted neighborhoods • City-Wide Middle Housing Development Fund
2. Equitable Development Policies
• Collective income < $38,360
• https://www.shelbycountytrustee.co m/index.aspx?nid=101
• Boost financial stability
• Many people do not claim this tax credit
• Higher non-claim rates in low-income areas
• Costing city of Memphis $30-70 mil.
2. Equitable Development Policies
• Sponsored by federal government (HUD)
• Residents include those in public housing or those who live in an area with a HUD- assisted project
• Also can be applied to businesses
• Helps provide job training, employment and contracts
• Immediate Opportunity with South City and the redevelopment of Foote Homes, which is a recipient of a HUD Choice Neighborhood Grant
2. Equitable Development Policies
Proposal: TIF and CBAs
• Comparison to PILOT programs
• Could fund home improvement grants for residents
Potential barriers and pitfalls • How to attract businesses in the first place
• How to ensure that new developments benefit current residents
2. Equitable Development Policies
Proposal: TIF and CBAs
Case Study: Highland Row TIF near the U of M • How we can replicate in other areas of Memphis
• Why this isn’t a perfect analogy
2. Equitable Development Policies
Proposal: TIF and CBAs
Second Part: Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) • Inevitable that Memphis will implement large-scale projects
• Promotes community inclusion in future development projects
• Affordable housing generally a part of agreement
• Specificity in standards (e.g. Affordable Housing Definition)
• Can include consequences that cancel out benefits gained from TIF if standards aren’t met
Potential barriers and pitfalls • Discourage resourceful developers because of strict regulations
2. Equitable Development Policies
Proposal: TIF and CBAs
• Pittsburgh Hill District CBA (Pittsburgh, PA)
Why both were successful: • Strong community present and wide array of community groups
• Specific definitions to minimize loopholes
• Caring developers
• More idealistic
• Funds collected from various sources for specific neighborhoods • could be TIF taxes, could be ~the government~
• For transitive periods in people’s lives (e.g. unemployment, family addition, rent spikes)
• Temporary relief to help people pay the difference in rent changes or property tax spikes
• Jane Jacobs’ rent control alternative to ensure affordable housing
2. Equitable Development Policies
• City government sets aside tax revenue specifically for middle housing development, not just vague “affordable housing”
• Ex: duplexes, townhouses, multiplexes, live/work etc.
• Lack of middle housing is an issue in most cities
• Another rent control alternative– this housing is affordable by nature
2. Equitable Development Policies
Conclusion
• Great city full of caring and committed people and immense potential
• Best way to stop gentrification’s negative effects: • Prior preparation and planning • Establishing a policy framework for affordable housing and fair employment before peak
commercial development
• For more successful and happy cities, we want all Memphians to benefit from new revitalization!
• This presentation is available at: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/11Q4QcgTxAJv22r8aDR1JYKtj80w7xnKbfVOp_A JubLM/edit?usp=sharing
• Lynn Osgood
• Jackelyn Hwang
Conclusion