Limited government supports under the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996 could cause low-income immigrants to struggle with housing affordability. Thus, this study examined housing challenges of Asian and Pacific Island elders, focusing on government assistance, and demographic, housing, and neighborhood characteristics. The research framework was based on the theory of housing adjustment (Morris & Winter, 1975, 1978). When investigating housing challenges, housing satisfaction was considered a representative term, as the dependent variable. The sample was Asian and Pacific Island households with a head 65+ who responded to the American Housing Survey (AHS) from 1995 through 2007 (N = 1,039). Asian and Pacific Island elders included those who lived in the U.S. for a long time as well as recent immigrants. Several statistical methods were employed: descriptive statistics, one-way ANOVA, Pearson correlation, crosstabs, multiple regression, and simple regression. Overall housing satisfaction level of the sample tended to be high from 1995 to 2007. However, there was no statistically significant impact of the PRWORA of 1996 on housing satisfaction and on the government assistance, and demographic, housing, and neighborhood characteristics of Asian and Pacific Island elders since 1996. Variables influencing satisfaction levels, and thus housing challenges, included qualifying for Food Stamps, education, family income, Census region, household size, housing quality, structure size, and neighborhood rating. Other significant findings included the impact of government assistance, geographical location and household size by year. An additional value of this study are the profiles of demographic, housing, and neighborhood characteristics and government assistance of Asian and Pacific Island elders from 1995 to 2007. Data analyses with the secondary datasets can assist housing researchers, educators, nonprofit organizations, or policymakers in their future studies or policies. / Ph. D.

Vertical Occupations in the City Center of São Paulo has been prepared as part of the Degree Project for the Master in Urbanism Studies course at The Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden.This Degree Project deals with social housing challenges in the central urban environment of São Paulo, Brazil, narrowing down to an important part of these urban challenges: the occupations of vacant buildings in the city center of São Paulo by social housing movements. Although the theme is part of a wider context, focusing on social occupations is critical to understand how the right to proper housing, and to the city itself, is a paradoxal universe. / Vertical Occupations in the City Center of São Paulo é um projeto de Mestrado (MSc) em Urbanismo preparado para Kungliga Tekninska Högskoloan (KTH) em Estocolmo. O trabalho lida com os desafios contemporâneos em habitação social, focando nas ocupações verticais no centro de São Paulo. Embora este tema seja bastante abrangente, ao focar em ocupações no centro da cidade, o projeto critica o direito à cidade e à habitação digna, focando na esfera mais carente da cidade, este expõe um universo um tanto quanto paradoxal.