This practicum examines the role of secondary dwelling units (secondary suites), as employed by the City of Edmonton, in the implementation of affordable housing policy. It seeks to understand the context in which the City‘s secondary dwelling unit program was developed, the various components of the program, and the impacts of the program. A review of the literature on this topic, a review of key City documents, a review of permit and grant allocation data, a key informant interview, as well as a survey of targeted neighbourhood residents were used to inform this study. Results from the study suggest that while that the program has made a significant contribution to the creation of affordable housing stock in the city and is generally supported by residents, details of the program may not be well understood by the public. Finally, possible future directions for the program and for research are suggested.

Improving access to affordable housing is often approached through efforts to increase the supply of such housing, as the need to make better use of existing resources and coordinating the efforts of housing providers is often overlooked. A central housing registry in Winnipeg would be one approach to improving coordination and better access for low-income households to affordable housing. This study explores different examples of housing registries that exist in Canada and the United States. It provides insight into the benefits and challenges of housing registries through web searches and a survey. A focus group was also used to gain insight on the local context for developing a central housing registry. This research will increase the awareness of the benefits of a central housing registry and provides recommendations on how to approach the development and implementation of a central housing registry.

A key feature of the market for health insurance is selection: a consumer's decision to purchase coverage can affect the costs for producers and the prices faced by other consumers. In three essays, I explore factors that influence consumers to take up insurance coverage, selection in market where a new insurance product was introduced, and the effects of a recent policy to expand coverage among young adults. The first essay examines whether language barriers and network effects can explain disparities in Medicaid participation among low-income immigrants. Using the American Community Survey, I show that linguistic networks facilitate Medicaid enrollment among non-English speaking adults. The identification method follows Bertrand et al. (2000) and employs local variation in the density of immigrant populations and nationwide variation in Medicaid participation among ethnic groups. I also find that the availability of foreign-language Medicaid information online is associated with significantly higher participation. The second essay examines consumer choice in the context of a health insurance exchange. Using data from the Federal Employees Health Benefits program, I examine the extent to which the sudden introduction of high-deductible plans into the system in 2004 may have generated adverse selection. While entry by the newer plan type does not appear to affect premiums of more traditional plan types for federal workers, enrollees in high-deductible plans are more likely to be younger and male. The final essay analyzes one of the earliest coverage-related provisions of the Affordable Care Act to take effect, the extension of health insurance coverage to child dependents up to age 26. Survey data reveal the law resulted in a marked increase in the number of young adults covered by private insurance. Analysis of medical claims data from private health insurance shows a relative decrease in average spending among young adults after the law took effect, implying that the dependent coverage provision brought healthier young adult individuals into the risk pool.

Division 8 is a prototype single player adventure game that challenges players to solve a story in a sci-fi fantasy world. Based on an Afrofuturist framework, Division 8 is designed to educate, engage and inform players on the affordable housing crisis. The concept of Division 8 is to parallel the section 8 housing vouchers system. In the United States, housing choice vouchers (popularly known as “Section 8”), subsidizes families’ rental payments so they can lease housing that they would otherwise not be able to afford.[1] Unlike games like the Redistricting game and the Westchester game that attempt to capture the housing crisis and housing history of the United States, Division 8 utilizes an interactive narrative to integrate players traveling through the reality of the public housing system. The objective of the game is to explore the convoluted paths and unravel the incentives of characters in the affordable housing crisis. Players will click through different character interactions and dialogue boxes to investigate, analyze and garner information. In making moves, players must consider not only the stories that will assist in solving the puzzle of surviving the housing system, but also the inherent knowledge and subtle clues that are embedded within the game’s framework. The end-state is reached once the player discovers the incentives of characters and ultimately, what decisions lead to the unsuccessful policies of the public housing system.

Demand for wearable electronics is expected to at least triple by 2020, embracing all sorts of Internet of Everything (IoE) applications, such as activity tracking, environmental mapping, and advanced healthcare monitoring, in the purpose of enhancing the quality of life. This entails the wide availability of free-form multifunctional sensory systems (i.e “skin” platforms) that can conform to the variety of uneven surfaces, providing intimate contact and adhesion with the skin, necessary for localized and enhanced sensing capabilities. However, current wearable devices appear to be bulky, rigid and not convenient for continuous wear in everyday life, hindering their implementation into advanced and unexplored applications beyond fitness tracking. Besides, they retail at high price tags which limits their availability to at least half of the World’s population. Hence, form factor (physical flexibility and/or stretchability), cost, and accessibility become the key drivers for further developments. To support this need in affordable and adaptive wearables and drive academic developments in “skin” platforms into practical and functional consumer devices, compatibility and integration into a high performance yet low power system is crucial to sustain the high data rates and large data management driven by IoE. Likewise, scalability becomes essential for batch fabrication and precision. Therefore, I propose to develop three distinct but necessary “skin” platforms using scalable and cost effective manufacturing techniques. My first approach is the fabrication of a CMOS-compatible “silicon skin”, crucial for any truly autonomous and conformal wearable device, where monolithic integration between heterogeneous material-based sensory platform and system components is a challenge yet to be addressed. My second approach displays an even more affordable and accessible “paper skin”, using recyclable and off-the-shelf materials, targeting environmental mapping through 3D stacked arrays, or advanced personalized healthcare through the developed “paper watch” prototype. My last approach targets a harsh environment waterproof “marine skin” tagging system, using marine animals as allies to study the marine ecosystem. The “skin” platforms offer real-time and simultaneous monitoring while preserving high performance and robust behaviors under various bending conditions, maintaining system compatibility using cost-effective and scalable approaches for a tangible realization of a truly flexible wearable device.

Este trabalho verifica os aspectos positivos e negativos existentes na gestão pósocupação de cinco edifícios reabilitados para Habitação de Interesse Social (HIS) em São Paulo com mais de dois anos uso. Os prédios selecionados pertencem ao Programa de Arrendamento Residencial (PAR) da Caixa Econômica Federal (CEF) em convênio com a Prefeitura da Cidade de São Paulo (PMSP) e suas unidades habitacionais são arrendadas a famílias com renda mensal entre três e seis salários mínimos. Na pesquisa são levantadas as dificuldades existentes neste período relacionadas aos aspectos sociais e econômicos dos moradores, assim como aos aspectos físicos e arquitetônicos do edifício. A metodologia utilizada inclui levantamento bibliográfico, entrevistas com os agentes responsáveis pela execução do programa habitacional e com os moradores dos edifícios. Após análise dos principais fatos que caracterizam a gestão pós-ocupação dos prédios, são apontadas as possíveis razões para as dificuldades encontradas na gestão. Destaca-se a falta de um trabalho social contínuo que monitore as relações sociais existentes no condomínio e que garanta a permanência da população no programa. Como resultado final do estudo são elencadas algumas alternativas para buscar a minimização dos problemas. / This work verifies the positive and negative aspects that exist in the post-occupancy management of five buildings that have been renovated for use as affordable housing in São Paulo, and have been in use for more than two years. The selected buildings are part of the Programa de Arrendamento Residencial (PAR) (Residential Rental Program) of the Caixa Econômica Federal (CEF) savings bank, in partnership with the São Paulo City Hall (PMSP), and the residential units are rented to families with a monthly income of three to six minimum salaries. The research investigates the difficulties that exist in this period, in relation to the residents social and economic aspects, as well as the physical and architectural aspects of the building. The methodology used includes a bibliographic review, interviews with the agents responsible for carrying out the residential program, and residents of the buildings. After analyzing the main facts which characterize the post-occupancy management of the buildings, possible reasons for the difficulties experienced in the management are indicated. The need is highlighted, for a continual social work, to monitor the existing social relations in the building and ensure that the population stays in the program. As the final result of the study, some alternatives are listed aimed at minimizing the problems.

Retail clinics are walk-in clinics designed for convenience and for servicing minor health issues and certain acute conditions. The model began as a way of bringing both convenience and care to areas that have lower levels of access to primary care resources. With the implementation of Affordable Care Act (ACA) in March 2010, populations that were previously uninsured were now required to have access to some level of health insurance. These populations presented a potential new market for retail clinics. This research shows that post implementation of the ACA, retail clinics tend to locate in areas with higher incomes and, generally, greater access to primary care.

Affordable housing is recognized as a problem in many localities throughout the United States. Local governments have the power to influence housing affordability through land use policies. Land use tools exist to address affordable housing.. However, these tools are primarily used to address other environmental, economic, and social issues. When implemented to serve other land use objectives, these tools can have a negative impact on affordable housing. This paper will describe the link between land use regulations and affordable housing, suggest the land use tools necessary to encourage affordable housing from a state growth management perspective, and examine how California, Oregon, and the Portland Metropolitan Region have utilized the tools in their affordable housing policies. Finally, this paper applies the lessons learned from the cases to recommend further action to assist in the integration of land use tools as a means of advancing affordable housing goals. / Master of Urban and Regional Planning

No description available.

The development of ‘Affordable housing’ has become an urgent and important topic of discussion in China. Unlike in western countries where the social welfare system has been set up for many years and the public housing system also is mature, in most of Asian countries, the social welfare systems are still weak in relation to their large amount of low-income populations. The gap between rich and poor is considerable large, and is still increasing; many people with low-income could not afford their own houses since the minimum down-payment and the entry-requirement of real estate market are both increasingly high; the ‘Affordable housing’ is therefore very difficult to be developed appropriately under this circumstances. The thesis provides an overview of the development of ‘affordable housing’ around the world, and a brief introduction of the relevant situation in China, in order to find out some applicable policy suggestions for the development of Guangzhou city’s affordable housing market from such previous experiences. Public housing system in U.S. and Sweden has a strength foundation for many decades, while China is a developing country with the largest population in the world, in order to solve the housing problem, Chinese government start to implement public housing policies and establish the ‘public housing system with Chinese style’. The Guangzhou affordable housing policies are based on the Chinese style public housing system, given the similar culture background and economy foundation, Singapore and Hong Kong’s public housing development process has more value for Guangzhou City Government to learn from. Results from questionnaire and analysis are shown for the current housing statu in Guangzhou City, which reflect some realistic housing problems and it takes a long term for householder to achieve down payment and ‘full house ownership’.