Congress continues to prefer nonprofit organizations over government and for-profit investors for participation in federally assisted multifamily housing programs because nonprofit organizations are believed to be more efficient in delivering services than government and more altruistic than for-profit investors. However, empirical information to support these beliefs is limited. The purpose of this study was twofold: a) to determine if property management practices of federally assisted, nonprofit-owned multifamily housing properties are different from those of comparable government- and for-profit-owned properties with regard to administration practices, financial management practices, maintenance procedures, and services provided to residents and b) to determine how much variance in these management practices is explained by type of owner, owner's goals for property , property manager's qualifications, and neighborhood environment. Independent t-tests and a multiple regression analysis, respectively, were used. The population consisted of public housing and Section 8 nonprofit- and for-profit-owned, project-based properties in Virginia (197 properties total). Results were based on 96 property managers’ responses to an 81-item mailed questionnaire, which included open- and close-ended responses. Management practices at the nonprofit-owned properties generally were not significantly different (at .10 alpha level) from those at either the government- or for-profit- owned properties. Nonetheless, some patterns were apparent. These included the nonprofit-owned properties having lower vacancy and unit turnover rates, quicker turnaround times for routine maintenance, and more initiatives to empower residents than the for-profit-owned properties. Also, management at the nonprofit-owned properties tended to conduct their maintenance more frequently and quickly than management at the government-owned properties. Approximately 42% of the variability in the management practices of the sample was explained by type of owner, owner’s goals for property, property manager’s qualifications, and neighborhood environment. Moreover, the nonprofit-owned properties, on average, scored higher than the government- and for-profit-owned properties with regard to their overall property management practices. While these findings appear to support Congress’ preference of nonprofit organizations over government and for-profit investors for participation in federally assisted multifamily housing programs, concern exists about the financial solvency of the nonprofit-owned properties, particularly since one-third of these properties failed to meet budget goals. / Ph. D.

In June of 2015, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development released an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to establish a more effective Fair Market Rent System using Small Area Fair Market Rents (SAFMRs) in the Housing Choice Voucher Program (HCVP) instead of the current 50th Percentile FMRs. The 50th Percentile FMR is currently in use in the Richmond, Virginia region, and the region is likely to be among early adopters of the new SAFMR System. This thesis assesses existing conditions that will affect implementation of the Small Area Fair Market Rent (SAFMR) System. First, it evaluates where voucher holders have located and concentrated with limited mobility counseling and without the SAFMR System intervention. Second, this evaluation assesses the theory of opportunity and targeting metrics currently in use by the local Move to Opportunity Program administered in the region, because the SAFMR System has a stated objective to enable voucher holders to de-concentrate from low opportunity areas. Finally, this evaluation assesses the SAFMR System’s potential for value capture, estimating total savings and a discrete number of potential new vouchers that may be created with those savings. This research attempts to answer these dimensions of SAFMR System implementation by evaluating key characteristics of current voucher holder concentration in the metropolitan region.

This thesis explores the shifting dynamics in low-income housing policy between the federal government and local stakeholders in Los Angeles from the early 1930’s to the end of the 1980’s. In particular, it examines the introduction and implementation of two of the federal government’s largest low-income housing programs: the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program and the Low Income Housing Tax Credit. Many analyses of low-income housing policy in Los Angeles focus mainly on local tensions and power dynamics. This thesis seeks to build on this literature by arguing that shifts at the federal level, such as the introduction of ideologies such as “new federalism,” have played an important role in shaping low-income housing policy in Los Angeles.

No description available.

Public administration scholars accept that public service values guide administrators’ behavior. This guidance also derives from social and cultural values that motivate administrators’ individual attitudes. A part of the field recognizes that public servants play an active role during the implementation process through their daily use of discretion. Nevertheless, public administrators’ values and attitudes are rarely linked to policy implementation and organizational performance. In consequence, public policy evaluation seldom considers the role of values and attitudes of those implementing policy. This study examines how public administrators’ values and attitudes towards citizens shape policy implementation and influence organizational and program performance. The implementation and results of Section 8 HCV Program serve as case study to address the linkage between public service values and performance. The Section 8 HCV is the federal government's major program that assists low-income families, elderly and disabled people to afford decent, safe, and sanitary housing in the private market. The Program allows participants to choose any housing that meets its requirements. This research hypothesizes that environmental and organizational factors impose a toll on organizational and policy performance and that public administrators’ values and attitudes towards recipients buffer some of these effects. The study employs a quantitative methods approach to examine and combine demographic characteristics of the communities that surround Public Housing Authorities -where the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program is implemented-, statistic indicators of the local housing market, Section 8 HCV structural factors of operation, levels of poverty and race desegregation in vouchers recipient, and the quality of their neighborhoods, to establish a correlation between Public Housing Authorities’ poor performance and less advantageous environmental factors, and vice versa. I conducted semi-structured interviews among Section 8 HCV Program’s case managers, directors and front-line practitioners in Public Housing Authorities in the states of Florida and California to identify the Public Service Values-based strategies that influence program’s implementation, and both, organizational and program’s performance. The quantitative evidence collected and analyzed in this dissertation indicates that environmental and organizational factors impose a toll on Public Housing Authorities and Section 8 HCV program’s performance. Meanwhile, the qualitative portion of the study suggests that public administrators’ values and attitudes towards recipients permeate the implementation process and influence Section 8 HCV program’s results.

Der Tagungsband beschäftigt sich mit den aus den neuen Technologien erwachsenden Anforderungen an die Archive. Er fasst mehrere Aufsätze zusammen, die sich aus unterschiedlichen Perspektiven mit diesen Herausforderungen beschäftigen. Das Eingangsreferat von Norbert Becker wertet eine Umfrage zu Erwartungen der Benutzer im Hinblick auf die modernen Medien und Informationstechnologien aus. Kerstin Arnold stellt das Projekt zur Schaffung eines Archivportals für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland vor. In zwei weiteren Beiträgen werden konkrete Digitalisierungsprojekte bzw. –strategien vorgestellt. Susanne Knoblich, Berlin, stellt einen Werkstattbericht zur Übernahme von elektronischen Unterlagen in das Landesarchiv Berlin vor. Abgerundet wird der Band durch einen Beitrag von Kerstin Orantek zu den Problemen des Datenschutzes in einer digitalisierten Welt. / The proceedings of the conference are concerned with the requirements for archives arising due to new technologies. It comprises several papers addressing these challenges from different perspectives. The opening address by Norbert Becker evaluates a survey on user expectations concerning modern media and information technologies. Kerstin Arnold describes a project to create the archive portal of the Federal Republic of Germany. In two other contributions, specific digitisation projects or strategies are discussed. Susanne Knoblich from Berlin presents a working report on the transfer of electronic documents for the National Archives of Berlin. Kerstin Orantek completes the volume with a contribution on the problem of data protection in a digital world.

Der Tagungsband beschäftigt sich mit den aus den neuen Technologien erwachsenden Anforderungen an die Archive. Er fasst mehrere Aufsätze zusammen, die sich aus unterschiedlichen Perspektiven mit diesen Herausforderungen beschäftigen. Das Eingangsreferat von Norbert Becker wertet eine Umfrage zu Erwartungen der Benutzer im Hinblick auf die modernen Medien und Informationstechnologien aus. Kerstin Arnold stellt das Projekt zur Schaffung eines Archivportals für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland vor. In zwei weiteren Beiträgen werden konkrete Digitalisierungsprojekte bzw. –strategien vorgestellt. Susanne Knoblich, Berlin, stellt einen Werkstattbericht zur Übernahme von elektronischen Unterlagen in das Landesarchiv Berlin vor. Abgerundet wird der Band durch einen Beitrag von Kerstin Orantek zu den Problemen des Datenschutzes in einer digitalisierten Welt.:Stephan Luther: Einleitung 7 Norbert Becker: Perspektiven, Benutzererwartungen und neue Aufgaben der Archive zu Beginn des 21. Jahrhunderts. Ergebnisse einer Benutzerumfrage 11 Kerstin Arnold: Auf dem Weg zum Archivportal Deutschland. Die Referenzanwendung aus dem DFG-Projekt zum „Ausbau des Netzwerks SED-/FDGB-Archivgut“ 37 Marek Ďurčanský: Die tschechischen Spezialarchive und die Digitalisierung 53 Matthias Röschner: Auf dem Weg ins Internet – Digitalisierungsprojekte im Archiv 65 Susanne Knoblich: Übernahme und Archivierung elektronischer Unterlagen durch das Landesarchiv Berlin – Ein Werkstattbericht 83 Kerstin Orantek: Probleme des Datenschutzes in einer digitalisierten Welt – Neue Anforderungen für Archive? 91 / The proceedings of the conference are concerned with the requirements for archives arising due to new technologies. It comprises several papers addressing these challenges from different perspectives. The opening address by Norbert Becker evaluates a survey on user expectations concerning modern media and information technologies. Kerstin Arnold describes a project to create the archive portal of the Federal Republic of Germany. In two other contributions, specific digitisation projects or strategies are discussed. Susanne Knoblich from Berlin presents a working report on the transfer of electronic documents for the National Archives of Berlin. Kerstin Orantek completes the volume with a contribution on the problem of data protection in a digital world.:Stephan Luther: Einleitung 7 Norbert Becker: Perspektiven, Benutzererwartungen und neue Aufgaben der Archive zu Beginn des 21. Jahrhunderts. Ergebnisse einer Benutzerumfrage 11 Kerstin Arnold: Auf dem Weg zum Archivportal Deutschland. Die Referenzanwendung aus dem DFG-Projekt zum „Ausbau des Netzwerks SED-/FDGB-Archivgut“ 37 Marek Ďurčanský: Die tschechischen Spezialarchive und die Digitalisierung 53 Matthias Röschner: Auf dem Weg ins Internet – Digitalisierungsprojekte im Archiv 65 Susanne Knoblich: Übernahme und Archivierung elektronischer Unterlagen durch das Landesarchiv Berlin – Ein Werkstattbericht 83 Kerstin Orantek: Probleme des Datenschutzes in einer digitalisierten Welt – Neue Anforderungen für Archive? 91

Many business executives lack strategies to detect and eliminate tenant fraud in subsidized rental housing. The purpose of this multicase study was to explore strategies some business executives used to detect and eliminate tenant fraud in subsidized rental housing. The conceptual framework used to guide this study was the theory of planned behavior. Data were gathered using semistructured interviews with 6 purposively selected business executives of public housing authorities, supplemented with a review of policies and procedures that business executives used. Yin's 5-step analysis, which entails examining, categorizing, tabulating, creating a data display, and testing the data, guided the process of coding participants' responses. Member checking validated that emerging themes were in alignment with participant experiences. The 4 major themes of the study were: perception of tenant fraud, detection and minimization of fraud, the effect of fraudulent behavior on tenant attitudes and belief systems, and verification procedures. The results of the study might support positive social change by providing leaders with insights related to fraud-reducing fragmentation, duplication, and overlapping of programs, which may result in federal funds being available for federal government public services. The findings of this study might add to the body of knowledge and further contribute to social change through a coalition of housing agencies working together to share their knowledge of combating tenant fraud in subsidized rental housing and restoring the integrity of the Housing Choice Voucher Program.

The constitutionality of affirmative action in terms of section 8 of Act 200 of 1993 is investigated. The study contends that in constitutional interpretation it is permissible to have recourse to ethical precepts as long as these are anchored within the four corners of the Constitution. It is contended that the •equality clause• does not prescribe equality of outcome in favour of substantive equality of opportunity. It is asserted that group-based affirmative action may justifiably be attacked as being unconstitutional; either on the basis that it infringes the nonbeneficiary's equality rights in terms of sections 8(1) and 8(2) or that it falls beyond the constitutional protection afforded to affirmative action in terms of section 8(3). Furthermore, group-based modalities of affirmative action may also not constitute a permissible limitation on the fundamental right to equality, if compared to an individual-based socio-economic affirmative action model. / Jurisprudence / LL. M.

Text in Afrikaans, abstract in English / Writer investigates the constitutionality of section 18(4)(d) of the Child Care Act 74 of 1983 against the backdrop of the South African common law and the common law of comparative legal systems. In the South Africa law the mother of an illegitimate child has guardianship. The natural father does not have parental power which weakens his legal position. In analysing the judgement of the Constitutional Court, writer criticises the court for stating that in the case of a newborn baby the kind of discrimination which section 18( 4 )( d) authorises against a natural father may be justifiable in the initial period after the child is born. The constitutional position of the natural father in American jurisprudence is discussed at length. Writer concludes that the natural father has to take positive steps to vest a right to be heard in an adoption application. Proposals for legal reform are also made. / Private Law / LL. M. (Law)